How to set up smartphones and PCs. Informational portal
  • home
  • Windows 10
  • Cyrillic to Latin Converter. Address translation service and how to write an address in foreign stores

Cyrillic to Latin Converter. Address translation service and how to write an address in foreign stores

Each language has such a category of words as proper names: first names, surnames, all sorts of names. Any of us at least once has necessarily faced the need not translate, namely to write Russian word in English. For example, when we are dealing with names, surnames, names of cities, streets, various institutions (such as cafes, restaurants, hotels), we need to convey the sound of the word, make it readable in English. The names of cultural and religious events, the names of holidays, national elements that are not in the English-speaking culture also require transmission in English, because we communicate about these things with foreigners, we talk about our country and culture.

There are rules for this purpose transliterations - a method of writing words of one language by means of another. Each letter of the Russian alphabet (Cyrillic) has a corresponding English (Latin) letter or a combination of letters.

There are many systems and standards for transliteration. But first, let's talk about transliteration standards. Now, when almost everyone has a passport, when we travel abroad and fill out documents and forms in English, you just need to know the transliteration rules that are accepted in the world.

Below are the options for transliterating letters and combinations of the Russian alphabet:

Russian letters

English letters and combinations


The soft mark and the hard mark are not conveyed in writing. Some letters are conveyed by combinations of two letters, and the letter Щ - by a combination of four: shch.

For instance:

Surname Shcherbakov will be written Shcherbakov.

Vowels E and Yo transliterated as YE, if they appear at the beginning of a word or after a vowel:

Yezhov - Yezhov
Yozhikov - Yezhikov
Sergeev - Sergeyev

In Russian, letter combinations are often found Th with vowels, and each of the combinations has a correspondence:

Russian combinations

English combinations


Many countries have transliteration rules for passports. In Russia, for example, the following rules apply for passports:

A-A, B-B, B-V, G-G, D-D, E-E, E-E, Z-ZH, Z-Z, I-I, Y-I, K-K, L- L, M-M, H-N, O-O, P-P, P-R, C-S, T-T, U-U, F-F, X-KH, C-TC, H-CH, SH-SH, SH-SHCH, S-Y, E-E, Yu-IU, I-IA.

Transliteration of names and surnames for passports takes place according to this standard using a special program into which your data is entered in Russian. If you have a passport, you must use the spelling of your first and last name, which is presented in the document.

Transliteration is used not only in paperwork. We have already mentioned the word groups that we use transliteration to convey. For example, in English texts it is easy to come across the words borshch, pelmeni, matryoshka, Perestroyka and many others that have no English equivalent.

Or perhaps you remember the times when mobile phones did not support Russian, and we exchanged SMS in English. Moreover, everyone intuitively invented their own transliteration rules. These messages were challenging to read, but very funny. For example, to convey the letter F used the letters G, J, Z, ZH. With letter S it was generally difficult: it was written as I, U, Y, JI. Those days are long gone, but the need to master the transliteration system has not disappeared, but, on the contrary, has increased. Use the acquired knowledge and communicate in English fluently. I wish you success!

Subscribe to our communities in

Online service: transliteration of text- writing Russian characters in Latin.

About transliteration of Russian names and surnames

When filling out registration forms, questionnaires, drawing up various kinds of documents (for example, a passport or visa), you have to write your last name, first name, address in Latin (English) letters. This service allows automate translation ( transliteration) Russians letters in english.

How to spell the surname and first name correctly in English? What is the correct name for a Russian site in English letters? There are various systems or rules for transliterating first and last names (transliteration of Russian words). They are based on the process of simple replacement of the letters of the Russian alphabet with the corresponding letters or combinations of letters of the English alphabet (see below). The difference between the systems of transliteration of names and surnames is observed when translating some letters, for example, E, E, b, b and diphthongs (combinations of a vowel letter and Y).

A - A K - K X - KH
B - B L - L Ts - TS (TC)
B - V M - M H - CH
G - G H - N W - SH
D - D O - O Щ - SHCH
E - E, YE P - P B -
E - E, YE P - R S - Y
F - ZH C - S B -
Z - Z T - T E - E
I - I U - U Yu - YU (IU)
Y - Y (I) F - F I am YA (IA)

In order to translate english letters v russians paste your text into the top input field and click the "Do" button. As a result, in the lower input field, you will get a translation of the Russian text into a transcript (Russian words in English letters).

Note. Since March 16, 2010, new rules for transliteration of the Cyrillic alphabet for the Russian alphabet have been used when issuing a passport. The result may not match the old name, for example, on a plastic card. In order for the name to be entered in the passport correctly (as before), that is, so that it coincides with the name on the credit card or driver's license, you must additionally submit a corresponding application. Example: Julia according to the new system will be Iuliia, most likely you will want Julia or Yuliya (which, in my opinion, is more harmonious).

When issuing a driver's license, a transliteration system is used that is different from a passport, similar to the system for a US visa. At the request of the owner, the entry in Latin letters in the driver's license can

Igor... Update: October 1, 2018.

Hello dear readers of the blog site! I decided to devote this post to the topic of transliteration, which, in a nutshell, is the rules for writing text using signs of another language (say, in Russian in Latin).

I think that almost all users encountered such a phenomenon, and many used transliteration, conveying their thoughts in Russian, but writing them down in English letters, simply without having a visual display of the Russian-language keyboard layout.

Such texts (notes or messages), written in Latin characters, can still be found on some forums. Moreover, their users write, basically not observing any rules that take place and which we will talk about below. The main goal of such communication is to convey information to the audience, which would adequately perceive it.

Some have used (and still use) transliteration from Russian into English when sending SMS from a mobile phone, if there is no corresponding language option. However, these are not the only examples of translit applications. Today we will talk about this.

Transliteration rules and its difference from transcription

To begin with, we will define the basic concepts for a more accurate understanding of the subject, as well as learn the fundamental difference between terms such as "transcription" and "transliteration".

Transcription Is a broad concept that means, as accurate as possible, the transmission of sounds of a specific language through a specific system of symbols.

Transliteration provides the display of letters of one script with the help of signs of another script, without the emphasis on pronunciation.

Words written with special characters are extremely useful for mastering the correct pronunciation when learning foreign languages. Here are some examples of the transcription of Russian words in the Latin alphabet in the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) format:

Address - ˈadrʲɪs Alexey - ɐlʲɪksʲˈej Almanac - ɐlʲmɐnˈax Gogol - ɡˈoɡəlʲ Dmitry - dmʲˈitrʲɪj Evgeniy - jɪvɡʲˈenʲɪj Yekaterinburg - jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnbˈurk Mikhail - mʲɪxɐˈil Dictionary - slɐvˈarʲ Tatyana - trj Yulia - jrjˈæ

Most languages ​​(including English and Russian) have their own transcription rules, when each word is matched by its phonetic counterpart, which describes its sound. Here are a couple of examples:

Smile - ulypkʌ (Russian transcription) smile - (English transcription)

Moreover, Cyrillic letters and words can be transcribed into English and vice versa.

The task of transliteration, as we have already defined, is to simply display the characters of one script with the help of the characters of another. Then the Russian words given above as an example (including names) will be translated into the same English as follows:

Address - Adres Alexey - Aleksej Almanac - Al "manah Gogol - Gogol" Dmitry - Dmitrij Evgeniy - Evgenij Ekaterinburg - Ekaterinburg Mikhail - Mihail Dictionary - Slovar "Tatiana - Tat" jana Julia - Julija Yuri - Jurij

I think now difference between transcription and transliteration the general meaning of these terms is obvious. There are many transliteration standards, sometimes incompatible with each other. Historically, several state standards (GOST) were adopted, which, including the Soviet era, regulated transliteration.

Today the international standard is valid ISO-9, regulating the general principles of translation from Russian into Latin. Its main advantage is that it eliminates the ambiguity of interpretation.

In it, each letter of the Cyrillic alphabet corresponds to a specific letter of the Latin alphabet or its combination with a special character (diacritic). Diacritics- special superscript or subscript characters that are added to letters.

A striking example is the sign "" ", which is present in some of the transliterated words presented above (say, Tat" jana), which denotes the softening of consonants (analogous to the soft sign "b" in the Russian alphabet). As a result of such a match, reverse transliteration is possible, even if the language is not recognized.

Despite the existence of the international standard ISO-9, which very unambiguously reflects the principles of translating the characters of the Russian alphabet into Latin, it is not the only one, since alternative basic rules are applied in various fields.

If you are intrigued by this topic and want to get to know it better, then you can find a list of all the basic transliteration standards for Cyrillic languages ​​using the Latin alphabet on a special Wikipedia page.

Transliteration methods used in practice

After presenting the theoretical part, it's time to dwell on the types of practical use of transliteration. Here they are:

1. Practical transcription- based on the ISO-9 type standard, which I mentioned above. It is necessary to observe not only grammatical, but also phonetic correspondence between both languages. In other words, it is necessary to find a "golden mean" in the spelling and sound of this or that word on the basis of both languages.

The advantage of this method is that text entry is easier. In this case, only Latin characters are used. True, slight difficulties may arise when reading some specific consonants, which have the following correspondences: "w-zh", "ch-ch", "w-sh", "w-shch".

It is used, among other things, when sending SMS, as well as often in the addresses of Russian-language websites and when working with software that does not support the Cyrillic alphabet. Below is a table of the most commonly used rules of transliteration of the Russian alphabet in Latin:


Please note that several variants of Latin characters correspond to some Russian letters at once (c, d, e, e, f, h, d, k, l, x, c, h, w, sch, b, s, b, e, yu, i). They are ranked in descending order of popularity.

2. Gaming language(alternative name "Volapuk encoding") - Latin letters are used here, together with numbers and punctuation marks. This name was received by him due to the fact that such transliteration is in use between gamers (players of computer games).

The fact is that in such games there are basically no options for using the Cyrillic alphabet in nicknames, so gamers make up such a set of English characters and numbers that look like Russian letters (for example, "Cuneiform" in the gaming version looks like "KJIuHonucb").

For the formation of Russian nicknames, this is even original, but for the purpose of sending SMS, and even more so when communicating, this method is clearly not suitable. True, sometimes gamer transliteration is used by some webmasters for their website (for example, nouck.ru or kypc.ru).

3. Vulgar- the most popular version of transliteration in communication between ordinary users. It is based on a mixture of transcription and gaming language. A compromise has been reached here, since this option is quite simple to introduce and at the same time easy to read.

Let's say it uses the number “4” to denote the letter “Ch”. Also, instead of "Ж" they put an asterisk "*", instead of "Ш" - "W", etc. In general, ordinary translit allows almost any interpretation, the main thing is that the author is comfortable writing the text, and the readers can easily perceive it correctly.

Transliteration of names, surnames and website addresses

And now we move on to the practical area, where it is necessary to strictly adhere to the relevant standards. For example, it is very often required to provide data (name, surname, your address) when registering on foreign sites, for example, on the same Google Adsense () or payment system websites (for example, PayPal).

If you are registering from the territory of the Russian Federation, then strictly follow the rules applied when issuing passports, otherwise difficulties may arise.

Therefore, the correct spelling of the Russian name, surname, address (as well as other necessary data) in English can greatly help you.

For webmasters, strict and consistent adherence to the rules of transliteration of Russian words is also of the utmost importance. Indeed, many owners of web resources on the Internet use translit both in page addresses and in the names of their sites.

What is it for? The point is that web pages containing URLs () have a positive effect on SEO. Say, is this a trifle? But the successful promotion of any project just consists of solid nuances.

An indirect proof of this can be the fact that, for example, Yandex, when ranking (about how search engines rank sites), quite recently even highlighted keywords in urls in bold in search results:


Thus, it is very important to observe the correct translit from Russian to English for the addresses of all pages on your site. For this purpose, it is worth taking the table provided above as a basis.

It should also be borne in mind that when constructing a URL, it is best to limit the character set as follows: use only numbers (0-9), uppercase (AZ) and lowercase (az) letters, and dash ("-") and underscore ("_").

For those who have web resources, there is a simple extension (although this plugin has not been updated for a long time, so for ardent perfectionists like me there is a more modern analogue), which provides automatic transliteration of Russian letters in the page address, while creating a CNC (human-readable urla).

Regarding search engine optimization, I would like to dwell on one more nuance (I remind you that there are no trifles in promotion). Despite the fact that the main international standard is currently ISO-9, transliteration in Yandex and Google has its own characteristics.

For example, in the generally accepted standard, the Russian letter "x" (ha) corresponds to the Latin "x" (x). However, Yandex in the search results does not highlight keywords with such a variant in the URL (only those keys where "x" is transliterated into "h" can be highlighted in bold):


A similar situation is observed with Google, although in the rules of transliteration of the "empire of good" there are some differences with the Russian search engine.

Since many webmasters and owners of commercial resources are a little more focused on Yandex, in the last chapter I will provide one of the online services that makes it possible to correctly translate any set of letters that correspond to the rules of the "mirror of the Russian Internet" into transliteration.

In general, you can always manually enter the required letter when compiling the url of any web page. Using the automatic option represented by the same RusToLat, we waste some time editing, since in the settings of this plugin it is possible to set only the ISO-9 standard as the most suitable. And in it just the correspondence "x" - "x".

Of course, you can find a way out here too. Namely, slightly change the plugin file, where the correspondences between the Russian and Latin alphabets are defined. To do this, open it for editing (I advise you to use the Notepad ++ editor in such cases) and replace the necessary symbols:


Just do not forget to make sure that RusToLat is configured correctly in (ISO 9-95 encoding must be set there):


Naturally, whether to perform such an operation or not, everyone decides for himself. By the way, I would be glad to have any comment from you regarding this aspect. Is the game worth the candle?

In order to achieve active participation of your site in image search, you can use translit of keywords in the very name of image files. For these purposes, it is convenient to use the Punto Switcher program. After activating the software, simply select the name of the graphic file and press the Alt + Scroll Lock combination on the keyboard (the default hotkeys in the Switch).

Online transliteration translators

1. First of all, I would like to immediately fulfill the promise and provide a service that takes into account the rules of Yandex (I suspect that for the Google search engine it will work too). This Translit-online.ru, where there are several options to choose from. On the main tab, you can translate online any readable text up to 50,000 characters long:


Below are the settings for some characters inherent only in the Cyrillic alphabet (ё, d, x, c, sch, e), which cause some difficulties when converting them to the Latin alphabet. Since this is a translation mode for reading, you can adjust the correspondence according to your understanding:

But the next page of the online translator you can just use to translate the page address of your website with CNC in translit:


There is also such an interesting tool as a virtual keyboard. It allows you to type text in Russian, even if you do not have a Russian-language layout. Switching it to the English layout, you can print using the Latin characters, which are most consonant with the Russian counterparts. True, you must first set the virtual keyboard to the "RU" mode using the "Esc" button:

For example, to get the word “transliteration”, after the above described actions, type in English “t-r-a-n-s-l-i-t-e-r-a-c-i”, and to display the letter “I” in the text field, first press Ctrl, and then “a”.

Among the useful features of this service, there is also obtaining a variant of the first and last name for a passport, this option is extremely suitable when registering on important foreign resources, as I mentioned above in the article. An online multilingual translator from Russian and vice versa is provided on a separate tab.

2. Another transliteration online translator is a well-known resource Translit.net(formerly Translit.ru), where its advantages. There is also a virtual keyboard right on the main page, which allows you to transliterate text.


It will help you to perform the correct transliteration from Russian into English of the necessary data: names, titles, URLs of site pages. Online transliteration (online transliteration) is a convenient and easy-to-use program that will facilitate your work and help you correctly present the necessary information in the Latin alphabet.

The advantages of our online transliterator:

  1. Considered rules of various systems;
  2. Ready URL for insertion into the site;
  3. Online translation in real time.

Use proven resources and don't waste time on long transliteration!

Online transliteration

Below you can find out what transliteration is, and also get acquainted with the main transliteration systems.

What is transliteration?

Transliteration is the most correct and relatively easy way to transfer text written in one alphabetical system through another, for example, Russian words in Latin letters. This method was developed by Schleicher and is still in demand today. This is logical, because it is thanks to this method that it becomes possible to correctly and correctly issue a driver's license, passport, diplomas and other documents.

In other words, this is the transfer of Russian words in Latin (in English), that is, the representation of Russian words using the English alphabet. For example, goodbye will not sound bye, but dosvidaniya.

Where is it applied?

Initially, transliteration from English into Russian was studied and used mainly by translators, but today its areas of use have expanded significantly. Transliteration has become quite popular on the Internet.

When translating, professional translators use the transliteration method if:

  • It is necessary to write the full name in the documents, addresses (streets), as well as other Russian letters in Latin. For example, Kovalenko - Kovalenko; Swan Street - ylitsa Lebedinaya;
  • We are talking about the realities of a locality or country that do not have a designation in the target language, or there is a need to emphasize the color of the language. So, we can cite as an example the well-known borscht, which translates as "borsch", grandmother - "babushka".

If we talk about Internet technologies, then transliteration into English serves to:

  • Come up with a name for the site. Despite the English letters, many site names are easy to read in Russian.

Use in correspondence or online communication. Here, letters are often replaced by numbers or other symbols. H is often written as 4. Hat - Shapo4ka. It is also a favorite communication method for gamers who often use transliteration into English.

Most popular transliteration systems

There are various transliteration systems. They may have some differences among themselves. We propose to consider several of the most relevant transliteration methods.

Transliteration according to GOST... It is an approved document that defines how to transliterate Cyrillic languages ​​using the Latin alphabet. GOST 7.79-2000 - adapted to the international standard ISO9, adopted in Russia.

Transliteration for documents according to ICAO requirements... ICAO stands for International Civil Aviation Organization. This organization has developed its own system of transliteration of names and surnames. This system is often included in online transliteration from Russian to English.

TYP transliteration(Traveler's Yellow Pages Transliteration) Despite the wide variety of transliteration systems, this system is quite popular and the most used, it has its own distinctive rules of transliteration from Russian to English, which can be seen in the table below.

Transliteration by order of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs N 4271 used for registration of passports.

Transliteration by order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs N 995 used to issue driving licenses and at the moment (2018) coincides with the transliteration for passports.

Transliteration for Yandex... Often, the title of the article itself is used as the title of the page of the site in English letters. To achieve good results in search engines, you need to use the Yandex algorithm.

When transliterating, some letters of Russian (or any other Slavic language), such as sch, c, s, h, y, f, y, in English cause the greatest difficulties. Let's see how they are transliterated according to the above parsed systems using the transliteration pivot table.

The final table of transliteration from Russian to English

Below is a summary table for transliteration from Russian to English, which shows the systems discussed above.

Russian letters

TYP system

ICAO system

GOST 7.79-2000

Orders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs N 4271 / Ministry of Internal Affairs N 995

Perhaps you will be interested in studying the topic of letters and sounds of the English language in more detail. With the online tutorial Lim English, you can take a specialized course on this topic. and start fun activities!

Why are SEO URLs with correct transliteration so important for a website?

For competent, correct formation of the structure of a web resource, one of the main conditions is a unique CNC (human-readable URL). The url view gives the user an idea of ​​what is on the page, and tells the search robot what the format is, what is the relevance to the query, and so on. In a word, it provides information that is used in the search algorithm and delivery of web pages. Thus, when specifying the resource address, you must use Yandex transliteration.

Why choose transliteration from Yandex?

Yandex transliteration is different from the usual transliteration

When analyzing links, the Yandex search robot pays attention to website addresses. And here the url, written in transliteration, plays an important role. It turns out that Yandex transliteration does not comply with traditional transliteration rules. There are exceptions to the translation of Cyrillic characters into the Latin alphabet. For example, for Yandex the transcription of the letter "ш" differs from the generally accepted one - SHH instead of SHCH.

Yandex URL transliteration and site ranking

SEO strategies make sure to take ranking algorithms into account. Thus, the webmaster achieves an improvement in the position of the web resource in the search results. Correct URLs increase the chances of getting closer to the first positions on the SERP. The search engine ranks pages with the correct transliterated address higher. Consequently, the Internet resource, where the correct transliteration of Yandex is observed, gains an advantage over its competitors.

Yandex also integrated a useful bonus in search for sites that use competent transliteration - highlighting the transliterated address. This selection is a powerful tool for attracting visitors to the resource, increasing the number of conversion of the site as a whole.

Which type of CNC to choose?

Transliteration or translation into English, Cyrillic?

The following three translation options are available on the website:

  • Competent translit according to Yandex. Ideal for Yandex, but not suitable for Google. Google will not highlight these words in the search results.
  • Manually translate a word into English. Unfortunately, such links are useless for Yandex, but they are a priority for Google.
  • Using Cyrillic URL spelling. Minus - external non-anchor links will look like this http://domain.ru/%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B5%D0.

The conclusion is unambiguous: to create a CNC site on the Internet under Yandex, we use the online transliteration service. For Google, we just take the translation of a word into English.

Top related articles