Having a hard time with the soft sign ь. New to Russian
Hey guys, I'm still VERY new to learning the Russian language. But I am having very hard time understanding how to make the "T" sound soft. I still cant hear much of a difference between мать and мат. I have a hard time hearing it, and I have little to no idea of how to make it. But considering it is the difference between saying one word or the other I thought it was very important.

If anyone can link me something that I can hear the difference or perhaps record themselves saying some examples I would really appreciate it. I don't even really know where I am supposed to put my tongue to change the sound.

Question

Having a hard time with the soft sign ь. New to Russian
Hey guys, I'm still VERY new to learning the Russian language. But I am having very hard time understanding how to make the "T" sound soft. I still cant hear much of a difference between мать and мат. I have a hard time hearing it, and I have little to no idea of how to make it. But considering it is the difference between saying one word or the other I thought it was very important.

If anyone can link me something that I can hear the difference or perhaps record themselves saying some examples I would really appreciate it. I don't even really know where I am supposed to put my tongue to change the sound.

Answer

In Russian consonant sounds are either hard or soft, while English consonants are somewhere in between. It is hard for you to catch the difference between hard and soft sounds, it it will come to you with practice. The more you hear Russian speech, the better your ear gets in that. I've recorded a few pairs of words for you where T is either in the very end or in the very end. I hope it will help. 
https://audioboo.fm/boos/1646416-how-to-pronounce-hard-and-soft-t-in-russian
Please do not hesitate to contact me if any questions. Good luck!

Answer

The problem is that you pronounce ''t'' differently. Pay attention that you put the tip of your tongue on the alveolus, higher than we do. So your sound is closer to ''ТЬ''. If you train to pronounce "ти" it would be easy for you to pronounce "ть". We pronounce "т" with our tip of the tongue pressed to our upper teeth. So press your tongue to your upper teeth, and breeth out through your mouth - you will get "т".
I've recorded my pronunciation here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5OR2YHPZ2I

Answer

My English not quite well, but I will try to explain you the difference. When you say "мат" you put your tongue between the upper and lower teeth and NOT pushing it to the roof of the mouth.  When you say "мать" уоu presses the tongue against the teeth and the roof of the mout. In both cases, doing a quick short breath. I hope it will help you. Write me if you need specify something.

Answer

Hi Zackery,
Yes, it's extremely important to learn how to make Russian letters sound soft because words can change their meanings and you can be easily misunderstood if you don't.
Followed by the soft sign Ь, most consonants are pronounced "soft", that is, as if a very short sound [i] was added to them.
Here you can listen and hear the difference between the words ending with the Russian letter "и" and "ь".
http://ruspod.com/alphabet/
Moreover,I found a great video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTR-ffjlm_c
Hope this helps.

Answer

Thank you to everyone who has posted so far. I appreciate all of it. Learning a new language is very exciting to me, but very scary because I don't want to say things wrong or to sound very broken when I speak. I'm going to make a recording trying to test out how I sound when I say it, Ill post it on here so you all can hear. I think I will Copy the words Ms. Eugenia Posted.

Again thank you all. Спасибо