Quick answer
Russian cursive joins every letter, and several letters become almost identical loops. Reading it is a separate skill from reading print.
The letters that change most
| Letter | In cursive it looks like | Note |
|---|---|---|
| д | a Latin g, or a looped d | the main shock |
| т | a Latin m | yes, really |
| и | a Latin u | no dot |
| п | a Latin n | two legs |
| в | a Latin b | loop on top |
| ж | a looped x with a bar | hard to miss |
So the handwritten word дом can look like “gom”, and тот can look like “mom”. Nothing is wrong with your eyes.
The и-ш-м-л problem
In fast cursive, и, ш, м, л all reduce to sequences of similar humps. Маши́на can look like a row of waves. Native readers use word shape and context, not individual letters — which is exactly the skill you have to build.
Do you need to write it?
Reading it, yes — you will meet handwriting on notes, forms, menus and in any Russian classroom. Writing it, probably not: printing is accepted everywhere and nobody will object. If you do want to learn, start with your own name and the ten most frequent letters rather than the whole alphabet.
The practical fix
Ask someone to write out the alphabet by hand once, and keep it. Comparing their д and т with the printed ones does more in five minutes than any amount of explanation — handwriting varies between people, and seeing one real sample calibrates your eye.
Typical mistakes
Reading handwritten д as g
It is д
Cursive д borrows the shape of a Latin g.
Reading handwritten т as m
It is т
Cursive т is written like a Latin m.
Check yourself
In cursive, д looks like which Latin letter?