Alphabet & phonetics: letter ≠ sound

Russian has 33 letters but ~42 sounds. Main trap: unstressed vowels change („молоко“ sounds [malakó]), voiced consonants devoice at the end („дуб“ = [dup]). The soft sign ь is not read — it softens the consonant: мыло/мыль. Stress is mobile: зво́нит, not звони́т — always marked in dictionaries.

• ●ё = always stressed — often skipped in print, but the sound exists
• ●Щ = soft long [ʃ:]: щука, not „shchuka“
• ●Stress changes the word: мука́ (flour) vs му́ка (torment)