Double Take

Origin of Character

• Middle English caracter
• From Latin character mark, distinctive quality
• From Greek charaktēr
• From charassein to scratch, engrave; perhaps akin to Lithuanian žerti to scratch

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We can now move on to those characters that look nothing like any letters we've ever used but that at second glance represent some very familiar sounds. Thankfully, there are only eight of these and you already know one.

Here they are:

• П - P as in pie
• Л - L as in little
• Б - B as in boy
• Г - G as in green
• И - EE as in meet
• З - Z as in zippy
• Д - D as in duck
• Ф - F as in fish

There are some tricks to help remember a few of them. The P character looks almost exactly like the symbol for pi, and by golly, it begins with the same sound. The B character looks very much like a b. The Z character looks pretty similar to the cursive upper-case Z that I was taught in elementary school. The D character is hand-written as a triangle much like a rudimentary roof on a house might be...and house in Russian is DOM, which of course starts with D, soooooooo......

I have no trick for the F, G or the L...although you should know that the latter is usually hand-written as an upside down V.

Not that THAT helps you at all, but ANYWAY.

We can end all of this insanity tomorrow, I promise.

Unless you enjoy this kinda thing...which from the lack of comments, I am guessing that would be a no...

ONWARD!