Russian · phrasebook
Basic Russian phrases, said right
All 34 phrases in our phrasebook, grouped by situation: the Russian with its stress marked, the transliteration, and a full guide behind each one with the variants and replies, plus the classic mistake when there is one.
Aurélien CuvelierSep 2, 2026Greetings and goodbyes
The first choice in Russian is not the word, it is the register: привет with friends, здравствуйте with everyone else. The same ты/вы line runs through every goodbye.
Please, thank you, sorry
Спасибо works in every situation, formal or not. Пожалуйста answers it and also asks, since one word covers both please and you're welcome.
Yes, no, help
The short words that hold a conversation together, plus the two you hope never to need.
Meeting people
Introductions run on the verb зовут, literally they call: Как тебя зовут? asks your name, Меня зовут answers it.
Love and pet names
Я тебя люблю puts the loved one before the verb, and that flat order is the natural one. The pet names reach from дорогая to солнышко, little sun.
Wishes, toasts and holidays
Nearly every holiday wish starts with с plus the holiday: С Новым годом, с днём рождения. Toasts work differently, за plus what you drink to, and there is no single word for cheers at all.
How to read the stress marks
Every Russian word has one stressed syllable, and the accent over the vowel shows where it falls: спасибо is spaSIbo, never SPAsibo. Learner dictionaries print these marks; real Russian text leaves them out, which is why you want the habit early.
Stress decides more than rhythm. Unstressed vowels compress, so the first о in большое спасибо sounds closer to a than to o. Sometimes stress is the whole meaning: здорово is a matey hi, здорово means great, and the spelling is identical.
That is why every phrase on this page, and every word card in the app, carries its stress mark.
Can't read Cyrillic yet? Start with the alphabet, letter by letter.
Questions people ask
How do you say hello in Russian?
Привет (privet) with friends, здравствуйте (zdravstvuyte) with everyone else. Russian splits social life into informal ты and formal вы, and your greeting announces which side you are on. When in doubt, здравствуйте is never wrong.
How many Russian phrases do you need for a first trip?
Fewer than you think. The greetings, the polite words and yes/no carry most tourist exchanges, with помогите in reserve for emergencies. What runs out fast is not phrases but vocabulary, which is why NuanceDeck teaches words in context rather than fixed sentences.
Is nostrovia a real Russian toast?
No. На здоровье means you're welcome, said after feeding someone; raising a glass to it marks you as a tourist. Real toasts follow за plus the accusative: за здоровье, за встречу, за вас. If you want one safe option, use за здоровье.
Learn the words inside the phrases
A phrase gets you through one exchange. NuanceDeck teaches the words behind them, stress-marked and in real sentences, so the next thing you say can be your own.
Written by
Aurélien Cuvelier Founder, NuanceDeck
Aurélien Cuvelier builds NuanceDeck: the app, and the verification pipeline behind its dictionary. Every entry is grounded in the official TORFL lexical minimum and a 20,000-word frequency corpus, and every example sentence passes a certification review before it ships.
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