First, I expect that you should at least know the basic difference (other than the writing) between the two characters: И is a soft VOWEL, while Й is a CONSONANT. In terms of the pronunciation, и and й are pronounced as [i] and [j], respectively, i.e., й can only be a short-timing sound of и, due to the fact that it is considered as a consonant. You may refer to the following webpage to check for the sounds of different Russian characters: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_Russian Except for some foreign words like йо́гурт(yogurt), йо́га(yoga), Йе́мен(Yemen), etc., Russian words do not start with й, and it basically follows mostly after a vowel. On the other hand, in order to soften a consonant, Russian either places a soft vowel, such as я, ё, ю, е, and и, or the soft character ь, right after that particular consonant. I hope that the above information gives you some idea between the difference of the two Russian characters. Good weekend.

Й represents the same sound as "y" in english words yay way bay yacht И represents the same sound as "ee; ea" [i:] as in green lean mean

Bravo, mitong_hk-tw! about И - http://aziza-russia.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post_02.html audio http://www.box.net/shared/kekfto7fhm about Й - http://aziza-russia.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post_02.html audio http://www.box.net/shared/ay9zgslfou И и - has only one sound and there are two equivalents in English – “I” and “e”. Examples – the “e” in “the”, “me”, “we”, the “I” in “limit”, “summit” Russian words: са́ммит (summit), игла́ (needle), игра́ (game) Й й – the equivalent of this sound is “y”. Examples – “way”, “astray”. Practice in pronouncing “y” separately. Russian words: йо́д (iodine), йо́та (iota), руче́й (stream)