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this is episode 6. Today we’re going to hone in on the most
troublesome vowel for non-Russians. Listen and repeat: Ы
paper, it looks like a lower-case English b, next to a capital I. But
again, it’s a single letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. Listen again..Ы
there’s another Russian vowel that sounds very similar to it. Listen:
listen to them side by side. The first…Ы and
that first one, I find myself tightening my throat to make the sound.
There’s almost this “uh” sound at the start of it. Whereas
this one…И…really matches the E in
comparison, let’s put some consonants in front of those. We’ll start
with a V sound…
first one, Вы, is how Russians say “you”
when speaking formally to someone. It’s the ‘you’ that you’d use when
talking to your boss, or really any adult you don’t know. Listen to
them again side-by-side: Вы….Ви
might be wondering…Man, the difference is so small. Does it
really matter? And to be honest, it just depends. Depends on the
words, on the phrase. Native speakers want to understand you, okay?
They’re trying. But sometimes, one tiny vowel can change the whole
meaning. Allow me to demonstrate that point by sharing a true story.
I was visiting a friend once, in Russia, in a city called Krasnodar.
She was a language major at the university, okay? She spoke English
great. Fluently. But remember…fluent is not the same thing as
speaking without an accent. And though she and I mostly spoke in
Russian, she wanted the chance to use her English with me, a
native speaker, so I asked her to tell me about her grandparents.
this is a true story. So she says her grandmother was a painter, and
her grandfather worked with wood. So this one time he carved a sheep.
I’d seen other wood carvings around the city—I’d seen one of
horses, and in the city center there was a big wood carving of some
Cossack warrior—so I could believe he’d done one of a sheep. She
had no photos of it, so I asked her to show me how big it was. She
made a face, and then she said, “From here…” then she
walked across the room, “…to here.”
was like, Wow. That’s really big. What’d they do with it?
made a face like it was obvious. “They used it to cross the
I’m trying to envision this ginormous wooden sheep, like something
out of Game of Thrones, like a Trojan Horse or something, and people
are clinging to it as they float down the river.
she said. “And it had two big sails.”
when my arm hairs stood up, and I realized: Holy God, this woman has
been saying the word “ship.” The man built a wooden
tiny little vowel and the whole story takes on a totally different
meaning. That’s why we’re focusing on the Russian vowel Ы
today. When we’re speaking Russian, we don’t want to be
telling any stories about giant wooden sheep.
a side note: Most Russians, even ones with a lot of experience in
English, living in country, they can not distinguish between “ih”
and “ee.” Ship / sheep, fit / feet,
and so on. That’s why all Russians make all their “ih”
sounds into “ee.” Instead of saying: This is a big hit
in my country. It comes out, Zees eez a beeg heet een my
a foreign language with an accent is the norm. It’s absolutely fine.
We just need to make sure that we’re understood. So let’s get back to
that troublesome letter Ы.
the following after the speaker: Ты….Ти
first one, Ты, is the word Russian word
for “you” when speaking to a friend or family member. Try
also add a letter after the vowel. Compare these: Быть…..Бить
meanings of those two verbs are wildly different. The first means “to
be.” The second means, “to beat someone, or something.”
Let’s try the past tense of those. Again, the only difference is the
vowel. Listen… Был…vs…Бил
trick I found immensely helpful was to puff your cheeks when you say
that first one. Like when
you’re cold. Brrr. For a moment, your lips close fully and your
They feel very similar.
make that our official phrase of the day. The speaker will say: I
was in the bank. Listen and repeat. Я
woman would say it with an “ah” sound at the end of the
verb. So she’ll say была. Listen…
would a guy say: I was in McDonalds.
would you say: The boy was in the park.
about: The toy was in the bank.
Notice how the speaker used the feminine version, была, because ‘игрушка’ is feminine. This whole business of word gender, it’s beyond the scope of this pronunciation course, but we deal with in great detail in my Russian Made Easy podcast, and also in my new podcast called Understanding Spoken Russian. There you’ll really learn to pick out the gender of nouns and verbs just by ear, which is a great skill. Again, that podcast is called Understanding Spoken Russian. It’s in all the usual places: iTunes, Google Play.
continue our review. What should you say to someone first thing in
to someone when you see them in the afternoon?
ask someone on the street: Where is located the theater?
would a woman say: My name is Olga.
you catch that soft-sign after the letter ‘L’? Not ‘Olga’ but Ольга.
Gotta bring that tongue up.
tell her: Very pleasant…as in, It’s very pleasant to meet you.
need to leave but you’ll see her later, so what do you tell her?
finally, if you go to Washington D.C., the White House, the Capital
building, the Lincoln memorial, the Washington Monument…these are
some of the…what’s the word?
let’s do some more work with Ы and И.
Listen and repeat: Лы….Ли
the letter ‘P’ (П) : Пы…Пи
try some listening practice with these. You can echo the speaker if
you’d like, but really I just want to see if you can spot the
difference. So in each of the following words, say “the first
one” if you hear that troublesome Ы
vowel…and say “the second one” if you hear the И
it is, the first one. Remember, Вы is the
formal version of “you” in Russian.
How’d you do on that? If you get the chance, I’d love to hear from you, so feel free to send me an email at: mark (at) russianmadeeasy ((dot)) com
