The basic rule is that consonants are "soft" if they are followed by <em>soft-indicating </em><em>vowels </em>or the soft sign.
<em>Soft-Indicating Vowels</em>
The basic rule to make a "soft-indicating" Russian vowel is to combine a
sound of English “y” with corresponding "hard-indicating" vowel.
For example, to get Russian “я” you should say “y + a” as if they are one
whole (ya).
There are two forms of a vowel, hard and soft:
Hard Vowel Soft Vowel
А ("a") Я ("ya")
Э ("e") Е ("ye")
У ("oo") Ю ("yoo")
О ("o") Ё ("yo")
Ы И ("eeh")
So, there are five "soft" vowels of the Russian language:
я, е, ё, и, ю.
Я as in “yahoo”:
This vowel is pronounced like English “ya” in “yahoo”.
Practice these words:
Яма ряд яхта мясо
ya-ma ryad yakh-ta mya-sa
hole row yacht meat
E as in “yes”
The Russian sound of “e” is easy, because it is close to “ye” in English yes.
Do not confuse it with the sound of English letter “e”, which most of times
sounds like Russian “э”.
Practice these words:
место лето песня весело
myes-ta lye-ta pyes-nya veh-seh-la
place summer song merrily
Ё as in “yonder”
This letter is pronounced like “yo” in “yonder”. As you can see, “ё” is
formed from “y” sound and vowel “o”: y + o = ё.
Now practice these words:
ёж ёлка плёнка
yozh yol-ka plyon-ka
hedgehog fir-tree film tape
<em>Rule:</em>
The letter Ё is always stressed in Russian words.
И as in “meet”
This letter is pronounced like “ee” in “meet”.
Practice these exercises:
Игла Индия пикник лист
eeg-lah een-dee-ya peek-neek leest
needle India picnic leaf
Ю as in “you”
The letter “ю” denotes the same sound as the English word “you”.
Practice these words:
Юг Юпитер плюс
yoog yoh-peeh-tehr plyoos
south Jupiter plus sign
Consonants are "hard" when hard-indicating vowels or the hard sign follows
them.
The concepts of "soft" and "hard" consonants are familiar to you from
English. The word "soft" here means that your tongue should be arched against the roof of your mouth (called the soft palate) so that it "softens" the sound.
The following example roughly shows that the letters m and l can be both
"hard" and "soft" in English.
Hard Soft
moot mute
lip leap
<em>Hard-Indicating Vowels</em>
If you really want to learn Russian vowels, you should practice. Here are some guidelines on pronunciation of five "hard-indicating" Russian vowels.
They are accompanied with exercises so that you could practice them with
real Russian words.
A as in Ah
This vowel is pronounced in two different ways depending on stress. When
stressed, it is close to the sound of the English word Ah, but shorter. When
unstressed, it is pronounced like u in the word nut.
Practice these words:
мама папа вата вода масло
mah-ma pah-pa vah-ta va-dah mahs-la
mother dad cotton water butter
You've probably noticed that the letter o is pronounced like unstressed a in
the words вода and масло. This is an important rule of the Russian
pronunciation.
Rule:
In unstressed positions, Russian letter O is pronounced like unstressed
Russian A. But when stressed, it sounds like "Oh" in law.
O as in law
Practice these words:
кот точка молоко стон окна
kot toch-ka ma-la-ko ston ok-na
cat dot milk groan windows
Ы
This vowel does not have an equivalent in English. Try to invest some time
in learning it and differentiating from other sounds. To get Russian sound ы,
you should place your tongue in the position right between the positions of
English sounds i in kit and u in sugar. Then make a new sound of ы. Note
that this sound is different form the English i in bit.
Now practice these words:
Дым быт был мыло мы
dim bit bil mi-luh mi
fog everyday life was soap we
У as in wood
The letter у sounds like oo in wood. In unstressed positions, it is pronounced
a little bit quicker than in stressed positions.
Practice these exercises:
стул губа музыка звук
stool goo-bah moo-zi-ka zvook
chair lip music sound
Э as in net
This sound is close to e in pet.
Practice these words:
этот интернет темп шест
e-tat een-ter-net temp shest
this internet tempo pole
Quick reference on "hard-indicating" vowels:
Russian letter Symbol Pronunciation
A (stressed) ah as “аh”, but shorter
A (unstressed) a as “u”, in “but”,
O (stressed) o as “аw” in “lаw”
O (unstressed) a as “u” in “but”
Ы no English equivalent no English equivalent
У oo as “oo” in “wood”
Э e as “e” in “pet”
