I (Cyrillic) facts for kids

Cyrillic letter Ee
Cyrillic alphabet
А	Б	В	Г	Ґ	Д	Ђ
Ѓ	Е	Ѐ	Ё	Є	Ж	З
Ѕ	И	Ѝ	І	Ї	Й	Ј
К	Л	Љ	М	Н	Њ	О
П	Р	С	Т	Ћ	Ќ	У
Ў	Ф	Х	Ц	Ч	Џ	Ш
Щ	Ъ	Ы	Ь	Э	Ю	Я
Non-Slavic letters
Ӑ	Ӓ	Ә	Ӛ	Ӕ	Ғ	Ҕ
Ӻ	Ӷ	Ԁ	Ԃ	Ӗ	Ӂ	Җ
Ӝ	Ԅ	Ҙ	Ӟ	Ԑ	Ӡ	Ԇ
Ӣ	Ҋ	Ӥ	Қ	Ӄ	Ҡ	Ҟ
Ҝ	Ԟ	Ԛ	Ӆ	Ԓ	Ԡ	Ԉ
Ԕ	Ӎ	Ӊ	Ң	Ӈ	Ҥ	Ԣ
Ԋ	Ӧ	Ө	Ӫ	Ҩ	Ҧ	Ҏ
Ԗ	Ҫ	Ԍ	Ҭ	Ԏ	Ӯ	Ӱ
Ӳ	Ү	Ұ	Ҳ	Ӽ	Ӿ	Һ
Ҵ	Ҷ	Ӵ	Ӌ	Ҹ	Ҽ	Ҿ
Ӹ	Ҍ	Ӭ	Ԙ	Ԝ	Ӏ
Old letters
Ҁ	Ѻ	ОУ	Ѡ	Ѿ	Ѣ	Ꙗ
Ѥ	Ѧ	Ѫ	Ѩ	Ѭ	Ѯ	Ѱ
Ѳ	Ѵ	Ꙟ
List of Cyrillic letters
Cyrillic digraphs

The letter Ee (И, и) is the ninth letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. It makes an "ee" sound, like the "i" in "ski" or "machine."

What the Letter Ee Looks Like

The uppercase letter И looks a bit like a backwards "N." The lowercase letter и is similar. When you see the lowercase и written in italic style, it often looks like и.

Where the Letter Ee Came From

The letter И has a long history! It came from the Greek alphabet, specifically from the Greek letter eta. In the Latin alphabet, which English uses, the letter И is similar to the letter I.

Its old name was izhe. This name was used a long time ago when the Cyrillic alphabet was first created.

Similar Letters

There is another letter in the Cyrillic alphabet called the decimal I (І, і). It makes the exact same sound as И.

Some languages use only one of these letters, while others use both:

• Russian, Macedonian, Serbian, and Bulgarian languages use only the letter И.
• Church Slavonic and Ukrainian languages use both И and і.

To help tell them apart, the letter И is sometimes called octal I. This is because in the old Cyrillic numeral system, it was the eighth letter used for numbers.

Related Pages

• Eta (letter)
• I
• Decimal I

See Also

In Spanish: И para niños