Russian Keyboard

How to type Russian with this keyboard

Choose how you want to type with the tabs on the keyboard:

• Standard ЙЦУКЕН: the real Russian layout, the one printed on keyboards in Russia. Each of your keys types the Cyrillic letter in that position: F is а, D is в, Q is й.
• Phonetic: each English key types the Russian letter that sounds like it, so D gives д and M gives м. Letters with no English match sit on nearby keys: W is ш, Q is я, Y is ы, H is ч.
• Translit: type Russian words in Latin letters and watch them turn into Cyrillic. privet becomes привет, spasibo becomes спасибо. Two-letter sounds join up as you type: zh → ж, sh → ш, ch → ч.

Press Esc to switch between Russian and normal English typing, for example to add an English name. Use the buttons above the keyboard for the « » and „ “ quotes, the dash, the № sign, the ruble sign ₽ and stress marks. When you're done, press Copy and paste the text into a chat, an email, a document or a search box.

Russian keyboard layout (ЙЦУКЕН)

The standard Russian layout is called ЙЦУКЕН, after the first six letters of its top row. It is the layout on every keyboard sold in Russia, and the "Russian" keyboard on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android. The small letter on each key is the English key in the same place.

It looks random to an English speaker, but it has a logic:

• The home row holds the most common letters: ф ы в а п р о л д ж э on A to '. Your index fingers rest on а and о, the two most frequent vowels.
• The top row runs й ц у к е н г ш щ з, then х and ъ on the bracket keys and \ in its usual place.
• The bottom row is я ч с м и т ь б ю, with the full stop on the / key and the comma on its Shift.
• ё sits alone on the key left of 1, where a US keyboard has `. It is easy to forget, and many Russians type е instead.
• Shift on the number row gives ! " № ; % : ? * ( ) instead of the US symbols, so the question mark is Shift+7 and the colon Shift+6. Russian letters have capitals, so Shift with a letter key gives the capital as usual.

Phonetic Russian layout: which key types each letter

The phonetic layout puts each letter on the English key that sounds most like it. It is the layout language teachers give students (Windows calls it Russian - Mnemonic, macOS Russian - Phonetic), and the fastest way to type a few words if you don't know ЙЦУКЕН.

Twenty letters sit on the obvious key (а on A, б on B, д on D). The rest need a moment:

• W is ш (sh) and ] is щ (shch), because there is no single English letter for them.
• H is ч (ch) and X is х (kh), the throaty sound in Scottish loch.
• Q is я (ya), [ is ю (yu), \ is э (the plain e) and E is е (ye).
• Y is ы, J is й (the short i), ' is ж (zh), C is ц (ts).
• The signs: ; is the soft sign ь and = is the hard sign ъ. ё is on the ` key, as on the standard layout.

Here is every letter with its key in both modes:

Russian alphabet chart

All 33 letters, capital and small, in order, with the usual Latin spelling under each. Download it to print.

Download the russian alphabet chart (PNG)

The Russian alphabet

Russian has 33 letters: 10 vowels, 21 consonants and two signs that have no sound of their own. Here is each one with its name, sound and the usual Latin spelling.

Letters that look English but aren't

Cyrillic shares many shapes with the Latin alphabet, and some of them stand for a different sound. These catch every beginner:

The letters that do match are А, К, М, О and Т, and (nearly) Е. So the famous РЕСТОРАН reads "restoran", not "pectopah".

The tricky letters: ё, ы, й, ь and ъ

• ё is always stressed and always sounds "yo". Print often replaces it with е, so ещё and еще are the same word. Type it when you can: it tells the reader where the stress is.
• ы is a vowel with no English equivalent, an "i" said with the tongue pulled back: мы, ты, сын. It never starts a word.
• й is the "y" in boy, a consonant, and ends many words: мой, музей, чай.
• ь, the soft sign, softens the consonant before it and changes the meaning: мат (swearing) but мать (mother).
• ъ, the hard sign, is rare and separates a prefix from a following е ё ю я: объект, подъезд, съесть.

Translit: typing Russian in Latin letters

Translit is how Russians write Russian when they only have a Latin keyboard, and it is what the Translit tab turns into Cyrillic as you type. Type these Latin letters to get each Cyrillic letter. Capitals work too.

• Two-letter sounds join as you type: z gives з, then h turns it into ж. The same for sh → ш, ch → ч, kh → х and shch → щ.
• e is е (ye). For the plain э, type je or e': это is jeto.
• y is ы on its own and becomes я, ю or ё with a vowel after it: ya → я, yu → ю, yo → ё. Use j for й: мой is moj.
• c is ц. Typing ts gives тс, two letters, which is right for words like отсюда.
• The signs: an apostrophe for ь (день is den') and # for ъ (объект is ob#ekt).

Common Russian words and how to type them

Each word with its meaning, what to type in Translit mode and the keys to press in Phonetic mode.

Stress marks (ударение)

Every Russian word has one stressed syllable, and the stress is not written in normal text. Dictionaries, textbooks and children's books mark it with an acute accent over the vowel, and learners need it because stress changes how vowels sound (an unstressed о is said like a) and sometimes the meaning:

To add a stress mark here, type the vowel and click the ◌́ button above the keyboard. It is a separate character placed over the letter, so Backspace removes the mark first and the letter second, and the word still copies and searches as normal text.

Russian punctuation and symbols

Full stops, commas, question and exclamation marks work as in English, but Russian uses far more commas: every что, который and потому что clause is set off with one.

How to add a Russian keyboard to your device

For a few words, this page is enough. If you type Russian every day, add it to your device so it works in every app. Each system offers the standard ЙЦУКЕН layout and a phonetic one.

Frequently asked questions