Russian Keyboard Online

ЙЦУКЕН on a QWERTY keyboard: where the punctuation goes

With "Type with my physical keyboard" on, each US key types the Cyrillic letter in the same position: Q gives й, W gives ц, F gives а, and so on. The letters are easy to learn. Punctuation is what slows people down:

• The period is on your / key, and Shift gives the comma. The US , and . keys type б and ю.
• ё is on the backtick key, top left.
• х ъ are on [ ], and ж э on ; '.
• Shift+6 gives :, and Shift+7 gives ?.
• The \ key types \, and Shift gives /. The extra key left of Z on ISO keyboards gives / and |.

As on a Windows Russian keyboard, Shift+2, 3 and 4 give ", № and ;. The @ # $ and € are on AltGr+2 to AltGr+5, and the ruble sign ₽ on AltGr+8.

Phonetic mode: spellings that trip people up

If you can't touch-type ЙЦУКЕН, switch on transliteration and type Russian the way it sounds. The table above lists every mapping. In practice, these are the ones that cause mistakes:

• y on its own is ы, not й. Use j for й, so dobryj gives добрый. "dobryi" gives добрыи.
• ya / ja / q give я, yu / ju give ю, and yo / jo give ё.
• c is ц. "ts" gives тс, which you want in -тся but not in царь.
• sh always merges into ш. For с followed by х, as in схема or расход, type skh or sx.
• ' gives the soft sign ь (mat' gives мать), and '' or # gives the hard sign ъ (pod''ezd gives подъезд).
• e' gives э, so e'to gives это. w and shch both give щ.

Starting a sequence with a capital letter capitalises the result: Zh gives Ж.

Mixed alphabets, ё, and setting up Russian on your devices

The most common hidden error is mixing Latin and Cyrillic letters that look the same: a/а, e/е, o/о, p/р, c/с, x/х, y/у. A word like "Москва" with a Latin "o" in it looks perfect but fails spell check and search. If a word won't match, retype it entirely in one layout.

Most texts write ё as е, but keep ё where the meaning depends on it (всё means everything, все means everyone) and in names such as Пётр or Королёв. Some search fields treat е and ё as different letters, so if a search finds nothing, try both spellings.

To type Russian everywhere, not only on this page:

• Windows 11: Settings → Time & language → Language & region → Add a language → Russian. Switch with Win+Space or Alt+Shift.
• macOS: System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit → + → Russian. "Russian – PC" matches the Windows layout. The plain "Russian" layout moves some punctuation, and "Russian – Phonetic" maps letters by sound.
• Android (Gboard): Settings → Languages → Add keyboard → Russian.
• iPhone: Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard → Russian.

Ukrainian and Belarusian need extra letters (і, ї, є, ґ, ў), so use the Ukrainian keyboard or the Belarusian keyboard for those.