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Russian Pronunciation: Consonants Part 2: Pronunciation guidelines
The 21 consonant letters of the Russian alphabet are á, â, ã, ä, æ, ç, é, ê, ë, ì, í, ï, ð, ñ, ò, ô, õ, ö, ÷, ø and ù. Since most of these letters can be pronounced two different ways ("soft" and "hard") they designate almost twice as many consonant sounds. Note that the consonant letter é is sometimes called a semivowel.
These sounds are designated by the letter Á. The sound /á/ is the same as the English b in but. Its "soft" version /á'/ is close to the English b in bee. The letter Á is pronounced "soft" when it is followed by "soft" vowels or a soft sign. Practice these words:
The "hard" /â/ is pronounced as v in voice. Its "soft" counterpart /â'/ is close to the English v in view. The letter  is "soft" when followed by "soft" vowels or a soft sign, and it is "hard" otherwise. Practice these words:
The letter à designates the "hard" sound /ã/ when followed by "hard" vowels, and the "soft" sound /ã'/ otherwise. /ã/ sounds like the English g in go. You should arch your tongue against the palate to get the /ã'/ sound, which is close to the English g in girl. Practice these words:
The sound /ä/ is pronounced like d in dial. In order to pronounce /ä'/ you should arch your tongue agains the palate. Practice these words:
The sound /æ/ is similar to s in leisure. The "soft" /æ'/ is very rare (can be found in ïðèåçæàòü) and is not explained here. Practice these words:
The sound /ç/ is pronounced like z in zoom. Its "soft" counterpart /ç'/ should be palatalised like the English z in zeal. Practice these words:
The sound /ê/ is similar to the English c in clock, or ck in nock. The palatalised sound /ê'/ is similar to c in cage, or k in okey. These sounds are designated by the letter K in Russian. Practice these words:
The sound /ë/ is pronounced like l in lump, but you should lower the back of your tongue and touch the upper teeth with its tip. In order to get the "soft" counterpart /ë'/ you should palatalise the sound as in leak. In writing, these sounds are designated by the letter Ë. Practice these words:
The sound /ì/ is pronounced like m in monk. The "soft" sound /ì'/ is pronounced as if it followed by a short English y sound, and it is similar to the sound of m in muse. Practice these words:
The letter Í makes the sound /í/ when it goes after "hard" consonants or a hard sign. It is pronounced like n in noon. When followed by "soft" consonants or a soft sign, the letter H makes the "soft" sound /í'/ which is close the English n in need. Practice these words:
The sound /ï/ is pronounced like p in pot or mop. Its "soft" counterpart /ï'/ is close to p in pew because it is palatalised by arching the tongue against the palate. However, you will need to palatalise it more to the Russian /ï'/. These sounds are designated by the letter Ï in writing. Practice these words:
The sounds /ð/ and /ð'/ are both rolled. The difference between them is that the sound /ð'/ is palatilised by arching the tongue against the soft palate while the "hard" sound /ð/ is not. Practice these words:
The "hard" /c/ is close to the English s in soup. In order to get "soft" /c'/ you should palatalise it by adding to it a short English y sound. You should get a sound close to the English s in seed. Practice these words:
The sound /ò/ is close to the English t in ten, but you should touch the upper teeth with the tip of your tongue. The sound /ò'/ is palatalised as t in stew. These sounds are designated by the letter T in writing. Practice these words:
The sound /ô/ is pronounced like f in fault. Its "soft" counterpart /ô'/ sounds more like f in few. These sounds are designated by the letter Ô in writing. Practice these words:
The sound /x/ is close to the English h in host. The "soft" /x'/ is similar to h in huge. These sounds are designated by the letter X in writing. Practice these words:
This sound is similar to the sound produced by the letters ts in what's up. It is designatd by the letter Ö in writing. Practice these words:
The consonant letter × can sound both "hard" and "soft". However, in the majority of cases it is "soft" (even if followed by "hard" vowels) and sounds like ch in church. Practice these words:
This sound is similar to the English sh in shake. It is designated by the letter Ø in writing. Practice these words:
This sound is designated by the letter Ù. There is no exact equivalent of the sound /ø'/ in English, but it is close to the sound made by combining sh and ch. The main idea is to make the sound /ø/ palatilised by arching your tongue against the soft palate. Practice these words:
When the consonant é is the first letter in a syllable, the sound is like "y" in "yes". When it terminates a syllable, the sound is like "y" in "may". This sound is always "soft". It is also used to form "soft" vowels. You
can find it in the letters å, ¸, è, þ, ÿ. Refer to the lesson on
Russian vowels for more information. Quick reference on Russian consonants
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