Russian typing practice

Russian letters

Russian uses a 33-letter Cyrillic alphabet. Some letters look Latin but are not (р is r, с is s, н is n, в is v), and others have no English match: ж, ш, щ, ы, and the hard and soft signs ъ and ь. Ё is often printed as е, but it is a letter of its own, as in "ёлка" (fir tree) and "всё" (everything). Smart Lessons bring each one in once the letters before it are up to speed.

The standard layout is ЙЦУКЕН, named after its top row, and nearly every keyboard sold in Russia has it. It places letters by how often they are used, so а, о, е and н fall under or beside the index fingers. A phonetic layout puts letters on similar-sounding Latin keys instead, а on A and б on B, but each system has its own: Windows' Russian - Mnemonic types ч as ц then х, macOS' Russian – Phonetic has no ё, and Linux's puts ж on V and ч on =.