Э э (Э э; italics: Э э; also known as backwards ye, from Russian е оборо́тное, ye oborótnoye, [ˈjɛ ɐbɐˈrotnəjə]) is a letter found in three Slavic languages: Russian, Belarusian, and West Polesian. It represents the vowels [e] and [ɛ], as the e in the word "editor".
Ye, Je, Ie, or just E (Е е; italics: Е е) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. In some languages this letter is called E. It commonly represents the vowel [e] or [ɛ], like the pronunciation of ⟨e⟩ in "yes".
The Russian Ё (ё) [yo] is an inchoate letter. It's the letter е [ye] with a diaeresis (umlaut, trema, two dots above) that's acoustically comparable to the German ö and the French eu.
In Russian, unstressed ⟨ё⟩ occurs only in compound numerals and a few derived terms, wherein it is considered an exception. It is a so-called iotated vowel. In initial or post-vocalic position, it represents the sounds /jo/, like in 'York'.
The Russian letter "э" is pronounced [e] like in the word "edit". But be careful, remember that the Russian letter "e" is pronounced [ye] like in "yellow".
In Russian, it's acceptable to write “ë" as “e". It's not so dramatic if you think about it: in English the spelling and pronunciation of many words are totally different.
Э is always vowel in Russian. E is either vowel or a combination of consonant [j] + vowel, depending on position (compare u in "union" or "fusion"). When each of them is a vowel, the difference is in that E makes the preceding consonant soft.
Ze (З з; italics: З з) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. Cyrillic letter Ze. Phonetic usage: [z], [ts]
In Modern Russian, the letter "ъ" is called the hard sign (твёрдый знак / tvjordyj znak). It has no phonetic value of its own and is purely an orthographic device. Its function is to separate a number of prefixes ending in consonants from subsequent morphemes that begin with iotated vowels.
э (upper case Э) A letter of the Cyrillic script, called e or backwards ye.
Today, both the Hard sign (Ъ) and the Soft sign (Ь) are used to separate a consonant and a vowel (mostly Я, Ё, Е, Ю), only the Hard sign (Ъ) separates a Hard consonant and a vowel, and the Soft sign (Ь) separates a Soft consonant and a vowel. In some other languages, a similar function is given to an apostrophe.
Yu or Ju (Ю ю; italics: Ю ю) is a letter of the Cyrillic script used in East Slavic and Bulgarian alphabets. Cyrillic letter Yu. Phonetic usage: [ju]
Ef or Fe (Ф ф; italics: Ф ф) is a Cyrillic letter, commonly representing the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/, like the pronunciation of ⟨f⟩ in "fill, flee, or fall".
Ukrainian Ye is romanized as ⟨je⟩, ⟨ê⟩, or even ⟨e⟩.
The letter З developed from the Greek letter zeta (Ζ), through an intermediate form with a tail (Ꙁ). This shape got simplified in handwriting until it became the modern form. The number 3 developed from a Brahmi glyph with three lines, similar to Chinese 三.
As a letter, Z does not exist in the Cyrillic Russian alphabet; rather, a letter resembling the figure 3 represents the “z” sound.
There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet. 10 vowels (а, э, ы, у, о, я, е, ё, ю, и), 21 consonants (б, в, г, д, ж, з, к, л, м, н, п, р, с, т, ф, х, ц, ч, ш, щ, and the consonant й which is sometimes a semivowel) and 2 pronunciation signs (the “soft sign” ь and the “hard sign” ъ).
In the Russian language, the letter "J" is pronounced as "й" (pronounced like the "y" in "yes" or "yellow"). This sound is similar to the initial sound in the English word "yellow," but it is usually shorter and less emphasized.
The /th/ consonant sound is substituted with /t/ or /d/ or alternatively with /s/ or /z/. For the TH, the tongue has to stick out from between the teeth. Since Russian speakers don't have the TH consonant sound in their language, they tend to keep the tongue inside for words with TH.