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Learn Russian Pronunciation Podcast Ep. 11
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Exercises Only Audio
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Welcome
to episode 11. Today I’ll be answering three of the most common
questions I get about Russian pronunciation. The first question is
about the Russian letter O. Here’s a typical email…
Hi
Mark, I’m confused about the letter O. Sometimes it sounds like ‘oh’
and sometimes it’s like an ‘ah’ sound. How can I know which it’ll be?
Good
question. You’ve probably noticed that—no matter how long a Russian
word is—it only has one stressed syllable. Even the longest one of
all—достопримечательности—only
one vowel gets stressed. Just like English words.
Now
in Russian, when an O gets the stress, it is indeed pronounced like
an Oh. But if it doesn’t get the stress, it sounds like ‘uh.’
Take the Russian word for milk. It has the letters ‘M-L-K’ just like
English, but there’s three O’s in there: М-О-Л-О-К-О
If
you’ve never heard it pronounced by a native speaker, then there’s no
telling where the stress will be. It could be MO-loko…mo-LO-ko…or
moloKO. There’s no rule. No way to know. Listen
to the native speaker: молоко
Ok.
Now I know. The stress is on the end.
Do
you remember the word we learned that translates as “okay,”
or “sure”. Like, someone tells you to call back in five
minutes. You agree by saying….
“Хорошо.”
Now
that word, if you’ve never seen it written, has three O’s in it, just
like молоко. And since the final O is
the one that get the stress, the other two are reduced to “uh”
sounds. huh-ruh-SHOW.
So,
again, there’s no way to guess which vowel gets the emphasis in
Russian. You have to hear it, first. That’s one of the reasons why,
as a beginner, you want to put all your emphasis on learning to speak
Russian. Because once you know the words, reading them is a breeze.
You’ll already know where the stress goes. That’s the same way you
learned to speak English. You had been speaking it for years, first.
The
second question I get a lot is about the Russian letter G (Г).
The emails always come just after the student encounters the
word ничего. Tell me: Do you hear a
‘G’ sound in there? ни…че…го
Me
neither. And yet the final consonant—that “vo” sound—is
spelled with the letter G.
What
cracks me up is how frustrated the person always is. “Argh! I
thought the letter Г was pronounced as a
‘guh.’ So why is nichivo spelled ike that? Shouldn’t it be
with a V?”
People…English
is a million times worse. Just take our letter O. In the word ‘women’
it’s an “ih” sound, but in ‘woman’ it’s an unwriteable ‘uh’
sound. In the word ‘bother’ it’s an ‘ah’ but in “mother”
it’s an “uh” sound. Even the simplest words…I mean, why
doesn’t “so” (s-o) rhyme with “do” (d-o)? The
letters N-O-W spell “now” but you put an S in front and you
get SNOW? Even double OO’s don’t make any sense. Why doesn’t good
rhyme with food? And that’s just the letter O. Heck, Russians
have a joke about English: If it’s
spelled Manchester,
it’s pronounced Liverpool.
So…Yes,
the Russian Г is sometimes pronounced as a
“v” sound. Big deal. Here, repeat the following words, and
listen for a “vuh” sound in each one.
сегодня….его….хорошего….плохого….ничего
All
those “vuh” sounds…they’re spelled with the letter Г.
And finally, I can’t help but point out:
How
about the English G? Tell me how it’s pronounced in the word cough.
Or garage. Compared to English, Russian is a nearly perfect
spelling system, with words sounding out exactly as they’re spelled.
So please, no complaining.
Moving on… Most of the of emails I get are from people wanting to know if they’re pronouncing some word correctly. And that’s such an important point. You’re studying Russian on your own, learning words and phrases, but you have no one to practice with and so you’re understandably worried that you’re not saying things right. That’s what everyone worries about, I think: Will they understand me?
If for no other reason, that is why I encourage you to join my Russian Accelerator course. Because along with lifetime access to the course, you get a full year of our Success Coaching. There you can send in recordings of yourself speaking Russian, and our native speaking coaches will listen and let you know that they understood you, and give helpful feedback so you can get even better. It’s one of the reasons Russian Accelerator is so popular, because it’s highly interactive. You study one of the lessons, send in your recording…then you can move on with confidence. You’ll know that Yes, people understand me. I’m saying this right.
Moving
on: The last category of questions I get deal with the really tricky
Russian consonants. Like Ш versus Щ
, or З versus Ц
and so on. The good news is, that’s exactly what we’ll be
covering in the upcoming episodes of this course. For today, let’s
choose the really troublesome pair of consonants: Ш
vs Щ
On
paper, they both look like an English W, except with flat bottoms.
Here’s the first one which is pronounced like “sh” in
English. Listen to the following syllables, each of which start with
Ш , and repeat after the native speaker…
шу
ша
ши
ше
And
now the 2nd one. Like I said, on paper it resembles an
English W, but this one has a little tail on the right. So, using
English letters I’d sound it out with “sh-ch”.
Say the words “fish chips”…from the end of fiSH
and the start of Chips…fiSHCHips. So again, repeat
these two letter combinations after the native speaker.
щу
ща
щи
ще
Let’s
do those side by side.
шу
– щу
ша
– ща
ши
– щи
ше
– ще
To
really get these down, we’ll learn four new words today. All of them
foods. These first two are popular Russian soups. Do you hear a “sh”
or “sh-ch”? Listen and repeat:
щи
борщ
Those
both had the tricky one…the “sh-ch” consonant. Try them
again..
щи
….is a soup made from cabbage, while…
борщ…is
a red soup made from beets and potatoes.
Next
word: шашлык
When
you put raw meat on a skewer and put it over hot coals for a while,
you end up with шашлык (shashlik).
What we’d call in English shishkakbob. And do you hear how it
has that simpler sound? The plain “sh” sound?
Twice…шашлык
And
finally, we have the word…каша….which
is porridge, usually made from buckwheat. Pretty much every Russian
and Ukrainian child is raised on kasha for breakfast.
Let’s
try all four again. Cabbage soup is…?
Beet
and potato soup is….?
Meat
cooked on a skewer is…
And
the breakfast staple throughout the former Soviet Union is….
Alright.
Great job. If you have a moment, please check out my Russian
Accelerator course, and in the meantime, I’ll see you in Episode 12.
View all episodes
By Learn Russian Pronunciation
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Full Episode Audio
Exercises Only Audio
Download Full Episode (right click save-as)
Download Exercises
Welcome
to episode 11. Today I’ll be answering three of the most common
questions I get about Russian pronunciation. The first question is
about the Russian letter O. Here’s a typical email…
Hi
Mark, I’m confused about the letter O. Sometimes it sounds like ‘oh’
and sometimes it’s like an ‘ah’ sound. How can I know which it’ll be?
Good
question. You’ve probably noticed that—no matter how long a Russian
word is—it only has one stressed syllable. Even the longest one of
all—достопримечательности—only
one vowel gets stressed. Just like English words.
Now
in Russian, when an O gets the stress, it is indeed pronounced like
an Oh. But if it doesn’t get the stress, it sounds like ‘uh.’
Take the Russian word for milk. It has the letters ‘M-L-K’ just like
English, but there’s three O’s in there: М-О-Л-О-К-О
If
you’ve never heard it pronounced by a native speaker, then there’s no
telling where the stress will be. It could be MO-loko…mo-LO-ko…or
moloKO. There’s no rule. No way to know. Listen
to the native speaker: молоко
Ok.
Now I know. The stress is on the end.
Do
you remember the word we learned that translates as “okay,”
or “sure”. Like, someone tells you to call back in five
minutes. You agree by saying….
“Хорошо.”
Now
that word, if you’ve never seen it written, has three O’s in it, just
like молоко. And since the final O is
the one that get the stress, the other two are reduced to “uh”
sounds. huh-ruh-SHOW.
So,
again, there’s no way to guess which vowel gets the emphasis in
Russian. You have to hear it, first. That’s one of the reasons why,
as a beginner, you want to put all your emphasis on learning to speak
Russian. Because once you know the words, reading them is a breeze.
You’ll already know where the stress goes. That’s the same way you
learned to speak English. You had been speaking it for years, first.
The
second question I get a lot is about the Russian letter G (Г).
The emails always come just after the student encounters the
word ничего. Tell me: Do you hear a
‘G’ sound in there? ни…че…го
Me
neither. And yet the final consonant—that “vo” sound—is
spelled with the letter G.
What
cracks me up is how frustrated the person always is. “Argh! I
thought the letter Г was pronounced as a
‘guh.’ So why is nichivo spelled ike that? Shouldn’t it be
with a V?”
People…English
is a million times worse. Just take our letter O. In the word ‘women’
it’s an “ih” sound, but in ‘woman’ it’s an unwriteable ‘uh’
sound. In the word ‘bother’ it’s an ‘ah’ but in “mother”
it’s an “uh” sound. Even the simplest words…I mean, why
doesn’t “so” (s-o) rhyme with “do” (d-o)? The
letters N-O-W spell “now” but you put an S in front and you
get SNOW? Even double OO’s don’t make any sense. Why doesn’t good
rhyme with food? And that’s just the letter O. Heck, Russians
have a joke about English: If it’s
spelled Manchester,
it’s pronounced Liverpool.
So…Yes,
the Russian Г is sometimes pronounced as a
“v” sound. Big deal. Here, repeat the following words, and
listen for a “vuh” sound in each one.
сегодня….его….хорошего….плохого….ничего
All
those “vuh” sounds…they’re spelled with the letter Г.
And finally, I can’t help but point out:
How
about the English G? Tell me how it’s pronounced in the word cough.
Or garage. Compared to English, Russian is a nearly perfect
spelling system, with words sounding out exactly as they’re spelled.
So please, no complaining.
Moving on… Most of the of emails I get are from people wanting to know if they’re pronouncing some word correctly. And that’s such an important point. You’re studying Russian on your own, learning words and phrases, but you have no one to practice with and so you’re understandably worried that you’re not saying things right. That’s what everyone worries about, I think: Will they understand me?
If for no other reason, that is why I encourage you to join my Russian Accelerator course. Because along with lifetime access to the course, you get a full year of our Success Coaching. There you can send in recordings of yourself speaking Russian, and our native speaking coaches will listen and let you know that they understood you, and give helpful feedback so you can get even better. It’s one of the reasons Russian Accelerator is so popular, because it’s highly interactive. You study one of the lessons, send in your recording…then you can move on with confidence. You’ll know that Yes, people understand me. I’m saying this right.
Moving
on: The last category of questions I get deal with the really tricky
Russian consonants. Like Ш versus Щ
, or З versus Ц
and so on. The good news is, that’s exactly what we’ll be
covering in the upcoming episodes of this course. For today, let’s
choose the really troublesome pair of consonants: Ш
vs Щ
On
paper, they both look like an English W, except with flat bottoms.
Here’s the first one which is pronounced like “sh” in
English. Listen to the following syllables, each of which start with
Ш , and repeat after the native speaker…
шу
ша
ши
ше
And
now the 2nd one. Like I said, on paper it resembles an
English W, but this one has a little tail on the right. So, using
English letters I’d sound it out with “sh-ch”.
Say the words “fish chips”…from the end of fiSH
and the start of Chips…fiSHCHips. So again, repeat
these two letter combinations after the native speaker.
щу
ща
щи
ще
Let’s
do those side by side.
шу
– щу
ша
– ща
ши
– щи
ше
– ще
To
really get these down, we’ll learn four new words today. All of them
foods. These first two are popular Russian soups. Do you hear a “sh”
or “sh-ch”? Listen and repeat:
щи
борщ
Those
both had the tricky one…the “sh-ch” consonant. Try them
again..
щи
….is a soup made from cabbage, while…
борщ…is
a red soup made from beets and potatoes.
Next
word: шашлык
When
you put raw meat on a skewer and put it over hot coals for a while,
you end up with шашлык (shashlik).
What we’d call in English shishkakbob. And do you hear how it
has that simpler sound? The plain “sh” sound?
Twice…шашлык
And
finally, we have the word…каша….which
is porridge, usually made from buckwheat. Pretty much every Russian
and Ukrainian child is raised on kasha for breakfast.
Let’s
try all four again. Cabbage soup is…?
Beet
and potato soup is….?
Meat
cooked on a skewer is…
And
the breakfast staple throughout the former Soviet Union is….
Alright.
Great job. If you have a moment, please check out my Russian
Accelerator course, and in the meantime, I’ll see you in Episode 12.
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