How To Sound Like a Native Russian Speaker? First of all, I would like to say that there is only one Russian language and one dialect. In different regions of Russia and post-Soviet countries you can meet different accents and slang, but in general we cannot divide the Russian language into different types, like English (British, Australian, American, etc.). However, how can you sound like a native Russian speaker? 1. Intonation Intonation in Russian is important. The same sentence, but with different intonation, may have different meanings. With the help of intonation, Russians add emotions to their speech. If we emphasize one word with intonation, we will get different questions or sentences. 2. Articulation For many foreigners, it’s difficult to speak Russian, because their facial muscles, mouth and tongue are not used to pronouncing certain sounds. Very often my students clench their teeth and don’t open their mouths when pronouncing vowels. In order to sound like a native, read and repeat tongue twisters. It will help your muscles adapt to the new language. 3. Listening Listen to music and read lyrics. Try to imitate the pronunciation and repeat after the performer. It will also be useful to listen to audiobooks and follow the text. Try to catch the intonation, sounds, and if you are watching a clip or an interview, watch the articulation. 4. Informal phrases Practice your Russian with native speakers, find friends for language exchange. You will see that we often use the same informal phrases when we ask “How are you,” “How was your day,” “What are you going to do” and so on. Of course, we don't always speak as it’s written in Tolstoy's novels or in our textbooks. Communicating with a native speaker will help you expand your vocabulary and add more colloquial phrases. If you have any other tips and recommendations on how to speak like a native speaker – leave a comment.