Aзбука is a very special book. It helps you learn the alphabet. This is the very first book Russian children use in school. This word is made of the old names of the first two letters in the Russian alphabet: аз (А) and буки (Б). The Russian word буква also has the same root - бук -.

Isn't it interesting that the English word book sounds very similar? That's because you can think of Russian and English as cousins who have the same great grandpa. They both belong to the Indo-European family of languages! And it's a very large family. There are quite a few words in Russian and English that share similar roots!

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