Learn Russian Pronunciation! Vowels and consonants. Another great lesson from Russian-Plus.com!

[TheFutski]

Thanks for the help, no one have been able to describe the way ы is pronounced.

[DislikeAndUnsub]

What are you talking about? Ы was one of the first ones he did.

[tYlK0o1sO1kG0vN7a1I1]

When i first watched the the vid i actulally doubted myself whether the speaker is a native russian speaker or not. Both english and russian pronuncation had so little accent that i couldn't decide which is the least acute.

[Strongholddg]

@RussianPlus please im not a native english speaker, but i have lived in the usa and i have one question: what does it mean to make a consonant hard or soft, i would really aprettiate if you answered. Thanks

[RussianPlus]

@Strongholddg in Russian we have hard and soft consonants, in English they don't

[BioCatLan]

I love this video thank you :D!!!

[sUnnydUcks123]

Thanks for your vid. I have a question though-is there any way of knowing when a letter will be stressed or not? That's what I'm having trouble with. I never know when the O will sound like an A-though I noticed it usually does.

[RussianPlus]

@sUnnydUcks123 i think the best way is to remember

[summ22]

@sUnnydUcks123

i'm having the same problem... i can't seem to find any rule for this. did you have success in the meantime and can give me a hint maybe?

[BLiNdZoRz]

Umm, the Russian Х isn't the same as the English H.

[antant159]

ugh too confusing for this guy right here ill learn it another time lol

[TeshiKennedy117]

Thanks for the video, I'll be checking these to make a decision.

[TeshiKennedy117]

I still can't decide if I wanna learn German or Russian... both are very bad-ass languages but I like German music better and it's closer to English than the latter.

[wannabeeloquent]

@TeshiKennedy117 German is much easier, because there are a decent number of words you can figure out (Mutter, mother; Katze, cat; Buch, book) and it's the same alphabet. However, because Russian is more difficult to learn, I think it would be that much more impressive :P

[jijbentgoed]

@TeshiKennedy117 but russian is also cool !!! like if you let it know your friends and you start talking they probably will be like 'WTF?!'

[Aqwnzqt]

Your videos are great can you please tell me:

How do you know when to use a stressed and unstressed a letter?

And when to change the ending "o" to "a" sound?

Spasiba!

[clintonplaza]

Hmmmm maybe I am not smart enough because it has been a month since I started and I am clueless when it comes to differences between O and A and when each one sounds like what. No way giving up though.

[Artyom235711]

@clintonplaza there's no certain rule for it, the only way to be sure is to use a dictionary or google.translate which provides the pronunciation audio. Plz feel free to ask

[clintonplaza]

@Artyom235711 Thank You that's very nice of you. I have let it go for now, actually was rolling along pretty good. Have to solidify my work situation and if it is going to be 3PM-11PM then I am seriously thinking about enrolling at Vassar! thx again. Future trips to Moscow and St Pete's are MUSTS as I am dying to see them.

[Artyom235711]

@clintonplaza St Petersburg is the center of the world :) at least for me, and at least now - and not only because I live here... Moscow is totally different, Piter in many ways looks familiarly European, which is an unusual sight for Russia, but for European and American tourists... ...whereas Moscow is more of the old Soviet style mixed with more modern stuff. Why did you decide to study Russian? 3pm-11pm is good by the way.

[laxgrind22]

do you only roll "P" if it is the first one found in the word?

when you say "retorika" you only rolled the first one, is that a rule?

[RussianPlus]

@laxgrind22 you do it in both cases

[jijbentgoed]

@RussianPlus when does the 'o' become unstressed? i don't really understand that.

plz help me :(

[RussianPlus]

@jijbentgoed it could be stressed ot not , really no certain rule for it

молокО

стрОрож

тОчка

see it could be stressed in any part of the word so you have to observe and try to remember

[jijbentgoed]

@RussianPlus ok thanks ill try to do my best :)

[jijbentgoed]

@RussianPlus i also have a question about the /X/ i don't know if you say it as a /H/ like in ''Hello!''

or the hard /G/ like the dutch use alot.

[738031334135]

@jijbentgoed There is a rule! The o becomes unstressed when another vowel in the word has stress. For example: зовут would be pronounced zah-voot, because the stress is not on the o, but the y. The o then becomes reduced/unstressed and sounds a little like "ah". You have to know where the stresses are though, which all Russians know, but do not indicate in print. That's the catch! if you take a Russian class, the teacher would tell you where the stress is, and you memorize it.

[738031334135]

You skipped bl!

[jijbentgoed]

@738031334135 huh? what is bl?

[738031334135]

@jijbentgoed The letter in the alphabet between твёрдый знак and мягкий знак. Maybe it looked funny because I typed "bl" on an American keyboard. It's ы. Does that look more familiar? Sorry, I was being lazy and didn't feel like switching keyboards, and I thought you would understand.

[pezos5]

3:27 metro [mitrO]

5:39 metro [myetrO]

Could you explain to me when to pronounce metro as mitrO and when as myetrO????

[Tainaawa]

@pezos5 It's simple. "E" (like all other complex vowels) is [ye] before vowels, hard and soft signs and at the beginning of the word. When it stands after a consonant, [y] of letter "E" softens the consonant and disappears. So "метро" will always sound [m'etro] or [mitro] (unstressed sounds are always vague in Russian)

[pezos5]

@Tainaawa thanks

[Tainaawa]

@pezos5 А разве в сербском нет смягчения?

[pezos5]

@Tainaawa Serbian has 30 letters and 30 sounds (in cyrillic). 1 sound is represented by only 1 letter. We only have 5 soft sounds/letters J (й), Љ (мягче русского ль), Њ (мягче русского нь), Ђ (произносимое слитно дьжь) and Ћ (мягче русского ч). Just five vowels A, E, И, О, У. Our E is pronounced like your Э. So, метро would be [мЭтро]. In Serbian the last syllable cannot be stressed. And our O is always O :))

[0secretusername0]

Question: are voiceless and voiced consonants ONLY for pronunciation (speaking) OR are they to be used in spelling/writing as well?

Thanks =)

[soullessSiIence]

Can you say "Chuck Norris" in Russian?

[Tainaawa]

@soullessSiIence Михаил Боярский

[hamsterama]

I didn't realize before I saw this video how different Russian sounds are from English sounds. That's probably why spoken Russian sounds very odd to the ears of an English speaker.

[discjockeyfuture]

Cласибо! This is helping me pronounce my Russian vocabulary words much better.

[benjaminwearne21]

спасибо! this video actually does a good job explaining sounds

[xXxJMON3YxXx]

great vid

[pr4bb7]

Great video - but I wish more could be explained on palatalization...doesn't seem to be covered in this lesson at all.

[Aelitafan1000]

the most difficult one sounds like a long e and L

[gjd6]

@Aelitafan1000

I completely agree. :)

[124dennis]

well i think this is kind of helpful but it is not that similar to Spanish even though know it

[oOMaryFelixOo]

In certain portuguese regions people have this sound that really sounds like ы. I guess that would be easier for them XD

thank you for the video, it's really helpful!

[omargav2112]

The "P" sound is my favourite as i speak italian..but i still have some difficulty with the "bI" sound...anyway i'm getting better!

[MazzazzK]

What is the difference between a stressed and an unstressed letter??

[nevarelax]

"д", "т", "л", "н" are not the same as in English! They're alveolar in English, but dental in Russian!

[morgywolf]

@nevarelax Aren't those two terms the same?

[nevarelax]

@morgywolf Erm, no.

[willempiekip]

Love the Russian language, but I can't get the rolled R right.

[fortpflanzor]

It is very good, but i would like to explain more clearly about ы (iery) : it is almost the same as the American u in "good" but by opening the mouth more.

[wetalloy]

I am novice in Russian and I got a hard road to hoe before I master this but I am very comitted in learning this

[sk8tradam]

This is extremely helpful! Since I am learning Russian alone :D thank you for these videos and your website!!!

[MatteNoob]

@sk8tradam are you still learning how to speak Russian by yourself? I am. How is your progress? I see it is one year since you commented on this video.

[sk8tradam]

@MatteNoob It's actually very good :) sometimes it's difficult because I don't have the help of like interacting with someone but I have a couple friends I can speak to in Russian which whenever I'm with them I learn a lot :) as soon as you get used to the alphabet and all the rules of pronunciation and what not it's pretty simple right now I'm more focusing on my accent because I've got everything else down pretty well. How about you?

[MatteNoob]

@sk8tradam Privjet! I'm glad to hear you are doing well, and it gives me confidence I can master this wonderful language too. I started out about a week ago, and I'm trying to hear, read and speak as much Russian as possible. I have the alphabet down pretty well, but still lack understanding of most of the grammar. I'm not ready to have a conversation yet, but look forward to the day when I can, as it accelerates the learning process a lot.

[supermariop2007]

very interesting, I am learning russian since 1 day!

[dalocke94]

good for beginners

[eagleofjungle]

спасибо

[Only4Russian]

Very good introduction! And your explanation about ы is good. That letter is a killer!