Hi, Isaac,

I was wondering what you meant asking this question.

If you mean the difference between writing and pronunciation, there is some. In the sense that we do not always pronounce every word just the way it is written, letter by letter - like, for instance, you mostly do in Spanish. There are some special rules about pronouncing consonants and their combinations. Also, some written letters are not pronounced at all - like ь, ъ (which are used to indicate the type of pronunciation of preceding or surrounding letters) and rarely some consonants. 

And, most importantly, unstressed vowels in Russian have to be "reduced" in quality - this means that they are pronounced with less strength and somewhat "lose" their initial quality (as compared to cases when the same letters are accented). And the further the vowel is from the accented syllable, the more it "loses" its character.

Thus, for example, in the word "кольцо" ("a ring"), the two "o" letters have different pronunciation: the last one is stressed and it sounds as the real [o], while the first one should sound less strong, more like [a].

In a longer word like, for example, "молоко" ("milk"), the accent also falls on the last "o". In this case the first "o" sounds more like English [ə] (a very weak and indistinct vowel sound), and the second one sounds a bit stronger, more like [a].

And this is the common rule for Russian. It may take some time and practice to get used to it, but it's not as frightening as it might seem at a first glance. :)

And if you meant the difference between stylistic registers of spoken and written Russian, of course there are different styles, genres and slangs, as in any other language.

Hope this answers your question.

Hi Yana,

Thank you very much for your explanation.

Yes, I was asking about writing and pronounciation.

Regards,

Hello Inna!

So, should I focus on the listening first or also grammar?

спасибо!