Four sounds you already know
The Belarusian Alphabet
Four sounds you already know
Belarusian has 10 vowel letters. The first four are friendly — they sound a lot like English vowels you already know.
The Belarusian Cyrillic alphabet has 32 letters plus the apostrophe ('). These represent 10 vowels, 2 semivowels, and over 20 consonant sounds.
Belarusian has five 'plain' vowels and five 'iotated' (y-glide / softening) vowels:
These appear only after vowels and never start a word:
22 consonant letters plus 2 digraphs (two-letter combinations for a single sound):
Ь (soft sign) and ' (apostrophe) are not sounds — they modify how adjacent letters are pronounced.
| Belarusian | English | Audio |
|---|---|---|
| А а | ah — like 'a' in 'car' | — |
| мама | mom | — |
| Ганна | Hanna (Ann) | — |
| мая | my (f.) | — |
| Э э | eh — like 'e' in 'pen' | — |
| гэта | this | — |
| цэгла | brick | — |
| О о | o — like 'o' in 'horse' | — |
| дом | house | — |
| новы | new | — |
| добра | well / good | — |
| У у | oo — like 'oo' in 'put' | — |
| учора | yesterday | — |
| хутка | quickly | — |
| мужык | man / husband | — |
This lesson includes 14 interactive exercises — multiple choice, listening, translation, and more. Sign up free to practice with XP, hearts, and streaks.
