The alphabet & the 9 special letters

Kazakh Cyrillic has 42 letters: the 33 Russian letters plus 9 that exist only in Kazakh — ә, ғ, қ, ң, ө, ұ, ү, һ, і.

The good news: Kazakh spelling is almost perfectly phonetic. Every letter has one sound, and words are read exactly as written. Once you know the letters, you can pronounce any word.

A few Russian letters (в, ф, ц, ч, щ, э, ъ, ь) appear almost only in Russian loanwords — you will rarely meet them in native Kazakh words.

ә — an open front "a", like the a in English "cat".
ғ — a deep, voiced "gh" made at the back of the throat (like a soft gargle).
қ — a deep "k" made further back in the throat than к.
ң — "ng" as in English "song", but it can start or end a syllable.
ө — a rounded front vowel, like German ö or the vowel in British "bird".
ұ — a short back "u", like the u in "put".
ү — a front rounded "u", like German ü (say "ee" with rounded lips).
һ — a light "h", rare, mostly in loanwords.
і — a very short front "i", like a clipped version of the i in "bit".

Listen to each one inside a real word below — the special letter is what you should focus on.