Yes, you can learn Russian for free, and the first step costs nothing but a week of evenings: learning to read Cyrillic. After that you need three things: a course that brings words back at the right moment, plenty of real Russian to listen to, and a plan that tells you what to do each day. This guide gives you all three, with an honest look at what is easy and what is hard for English speakers, the best free resources from universities and public broadcasters, and a 12-week plan for 20 to 30 minutes a day.
Is Russian hard for English speakers?
It takes longer than French or Spanish, but less than its reputation suggests. The US Foreign Service Institute, which trains American diplomats, puts Russian in Category III, its group of "hard languages": about 44 weeks, or 1,012 class hours, for English speakers to reach professional working proficiency (FSI). The easiest group, which includes Spanish and French, needs 552 to 690 hours; Arabic, Mandarin, Japanese and Korean about 2,200.
Some things are easier than in English:
- No articles. Russian has no "a" and no "the". Это книга (eto kniga) means "this is a book" or "this is the book".
- No "to be" in the present. Я студент (ya student) is "I am a student", literally "I student".
- Familiar words. Once you can read Cyrillic, ресторан (restoran, restaurant), метро (metro, subway), такси (taksi, taxi) and компьютер (komp'yuter, computer) need no dictionary.
- Only three tenses. Past, present and future. Russian does the rest with aspect, below.
And some things take real work.
Six cases. Nouns change their ending according to their job in the sentence. Here is мама (mama, Mom):
| Case | Russian | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Это мама. (Eto mama.) | This is Mom. |
| Genitive | Мамы нет дома. (Mamy net doma.) | Mom isn't home. |
| Dative | Я звоню маме. (Ya zvonyu mame.) | I'm calling Mom. |
| Accusative | Я люблю маму. (Ya lyublyu mamu.) | I love Mom. |
| Instrumental | Я гуляю с мамой. (Ya gulyayu s mamoy.) | I'm going for a walk with Mom. |
| Prepositional | Я думаю о маме. (Ya dumayu o mame.) | I'm thinking about Mom. |
Aspect. Most verbs come in pairs. Я читал книгу (ya chital knigu) means "I was reading the book", or simply that the reading happened; Я прочитал книгу (ya prochital knigu) means "I finished the book". Learn each verb as a pair from the start.
Stress. Stress can fall on any syllable, it is not marked in normal texts, and it changes how vowels sound: молоко (moloko, milk) is pronounced roughly "malakó". Sometimes it changes the meaning: замок is a castle when you say zámok and a lock when you say zamók.
Verbs of motion. Russian separates going on foot from going by vehicle, and one trip in one direction from regular or round trips: идти (idti) and ходить (khodit') on foot, ехать (yekhat') and ездить (yezdit') by transport. You meet them around A2.
Should you learn the Cyrillic alphabet first?
Yes, before anything else. Russian uses 33 letters, and a week of daily practice gets you reading slowly. Romanization helps for a few days, then gets in the way. The letters fall into three groups:
| Group | Letters |
|---|---|
| Look and sound like English | А (a), К (k), М (m), О (o), Т (t) |
| Look like English, sound different | В (v), Е (ye), Н (n), Р (r), С (s), У (u), Х (kh) |
| New shapes | Б (b), Г (g), Д (d), Ё (yo), Ж (zh), З (z), И (i), Й (y), Л (l), П (p), Ф (f), Ц (ts), Ч (ch), Ш (sh), Щ (shch), Ы (y), Э (e), Ю (yu), Я (ya), plus Ъ and Ь, the hard and soft signs |
The second group causes most early mistakes: РЕСТОРАН reads "restoran", not "pectopah". Ы is the one vowel English has no match for; try saying "i" with your tongue pulled back. The soft sign Ь has no sound of its own but softens the consonant before it, which is why romanization writes it as an apostrophe: мать (mat', mother). And the formal hello, здравствуйте (zdravstvuyte), trips up everyone: the first в is silent, so say "zdrastvuyte".
How to learn Russian for free with Qlango
Qlango is free to download on Android and iOS, also runs in the browser, and you can start learning for free. When you add a course, you choose the language you learn through: pick English, then Russian, and every word and sentence comes with its English meaning. Your first A1 lesson takes about five minutes.
The Russian course covers the whole CEFR scale, A1 to C2, so the course that teaches you привет (privet, hi) goes all the way to the level described in our post on Russian C2. Spaced repetition brings each word back right before you would forget it, which is exactly what case endings need: you see маме and маму again and again, in different sentences, until the right one sounds right. Exercises move from picking one of four answers to building sentences and then writing them yourself, and writing is where endings stick.
The rest keeps the habit going: flashcards, games such as Word Duel, Wordle and MinuteRush, streaks, a weekly plan and statistics. In the chat you can write to other learners, with message translation and AI help to write a reply. Premium adds an AI teacher and offline learning. Every course and level is listed on the languages page.
