The Belarusian Alphabet

Level 1Sounds Like belaruskí alfavít

Belarusian is written in a 32-letter Cyrillic alphabet. Two letters stand out: і and ў. Three Russian letters are not used at all: и, щ and ъ.

How It Works

The full alphabet in order:

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З І Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ў Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Ы Ь Э Ю Я

  • Vowel letters (10). А, о, у, ы and э follow a hard consonant, and а, о, у and э can also start a word. Е, ё, ю, я and і show that the consonant before them is soft, or they add a [j] sound at the start of a word and after a vowel: яблык (apple) starts with [ja].
  • Consonant letters (21), including й and ў. Ў is a short w-like sound after a vowel, as in воўк (wolf). See ў.
  • Ь (the soft sign) has no sound of its own. It softens the consonant before it: дзень (day). See мяккі знак.

Some things look like letters but are not counted in the 32:

  • Дж and дз are single sounds written with two letters: джэм (jam), дзверы (door). See дж і дз.
  • The apostrophe separates a consonant from a following я, е, ё, ю or і: сям'я (family). See апостраф.

Two spelling habits matter from day one. The dots on ё are always written: мёд (honey). A small і always has its dot, while a printed capital І has none.

If you know Russian, watch for these swaps: ещё → яшчэ (still, more), щека → шчака (cheek), дети → дзеці (children), объявление → аб'ява (announcement).

This course follows the official spelling rules of 2008. The older classical spelling, taraškievica, uses the same letters (sometimes adding ґ) but spells many words differently. See наркамаўка і тарашкевіца.

Examples (5)

  1. Я яшчэ вучу беларускую мову.

    I am still learning Belarusian.

    Word by Word: I still learn Belarusian language.

    Яшчэ is written with шч where Russian uses щ (ещё).

  2. Дзеці гуляюць у двары.

    The children are playing in the yard.

    Word by Word: Children play in yard.

    Дзеці has the digraph дз and the letter і; Belarusian never uses и.

  3. Мы п'ём чай з мёдам.

    We are drinking tea with honey.

    Word by Word: We drink tea with honey.

    The apostrophe in п'ём keeps the [j] sound, and ё always keeps its dots.

  4. Воўк жыве ў лесе.

    The wolf lives in the forest.

    Word by Word: Wolf lives in forest.

    Ў appears twice: inside воўк and as the preposition у after the vowel of жыве.

  5. Шчаслівай дарогі!

    Have a good trip!

    Word by Word: Of-happy road!

    Шчаслівы (happy) is spelled with шч.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the Russian letter и.

    Дзети гуляюць у двары.
    Дзеці гуляюць у двары.

    Belarusian has no letter и. After a soft consonant write і, and after a hard one write ы.

  • Writing щ instead of шч.

    Дзе мая щотка?
    Дзе мая шчотка?

    Belarusian has no letter щ. The same sound is always written with two letters, шч.

  • Writing the Russian hard sign ъ.

    Я чытаю абъяву.
    Я чытаю аб'яву.

    Belarusian has no ъ. An apostrophe does the same job.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

The Belarusian AlphabetLevel 1

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Patterns that build on this one.