Five Cyrillic letters look and sound much like English: А (a), К (k), М (m), О (o) and Т (t). Every Russian word has one stressed syllable, but ordinary text does not mark it - learner books add an accent (Москва́). Stress matters even for these easy letters: an о that is not stressed sounds like a, so Москва is said mask-VA.
Examples
- мама
- mum - м and а as in English: MA-ma
- такси
- taxi - т, а and к as in English: tak-SI
- Москва
- Moscow - the о is not stressed, so it sounds like a: mask-VA
The mistake to avoid
Don't read every о as o: only a stressed о is a full o. Unstressed, it sounds like a (Москва is mask-VA, космос is KOS-mas).
Where this fits in
The Russian alphabet, Russian A1: Read Cyrillic letter by letter and sound out your first Russian words - many of them you already know.