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Learn Russian Pronunciation Podcast Ep. 3
Full Episode Audio
Exercises Only Audio
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Download Exercises
Welcome
to episode 3 of Learn Russian Pronunciation. If you’re new to this
course I recommend going back to episode #1 because the lessons are
cumulative and they assume you’ve mastered everything in the
previous episodes. Anyway, today we’ll be working with consonant
clusters. That’s when you have three or more consonants in a row,
with no vowel to break them up. English has them. Take the consonants
S-P-L…Like the word Splash. That’s a cluster. Or this…I
read this in a recipe. Add five twelfths of a
pound. How many consonants are at the end of that word, twelfths?
You have an L, an F, a Th, and an S. That’s four in a row….which is
why it’s so hard to pronounce. Twelfths.
Russian,
bless its heart, has even more consonant clusters than English. And
because the rolled R is so often in these clusters, they can be tough
to pronounce correctly. For ex:
вдруг
You
have a V sound, a D, and a rolled R. Try it again…вдруг
Don’t
worry about the meaning. Let’s just get the sounds down. Here’s
another one…
вправо
It
has a cluster of F-P-R. Here’s the native speaker:
Next…скрипка
That
has an S-K-R cluster…like the English word “scrape”.
Listen again…
This
(violin playing) is a скрипка by the
way. Let’s use that connection between “scrape” and
“скрипка” as a way to
remember the word. Repeat this sentence:
I
gave up the violin because all I did was
make scraping sounds.
So,
that sentence gives us violin…and…scraping…which
leads us to the Russian word скрипка
Let’s
try those three ‘R’ clusters again: вдруг…вправо…скрипка
Of
course, not all clusters contain an R. Try these…
кстати
That
starts with a K, an S, and a T.
взлёт
That
had a V, a Z and an L.
Next:
сквозняк
An
S, a K, and a V.
Let’s
try those three again: кстати…взлёт…сквозняк
(violin
fades in) What’s this instrument again? скрипка
Good!
For
our official new word of this episode, let’s try this one: встреча
That’s
a cluster of four consonants in a row. An F, an S, a T, and an R.
вс…тре…ча
Hit
pause and practice that one a few times on your own. Alright, lets
see if you can you figure out the meaning.
So,
I’m sitting with a friend in Starbucks and when I offer to buy a
second round of drinks, he looks at his watch and shakes his head.
“I’ve got an important встреча with
a client. I’d better go.”
Or
this: At work, I tell our secretary I need to speak with the boss,
but she points to his office door. “He’s in a встреча
right now. But if you take a seat…”
How
would you translate that word? A встреча
is a meeting. And it’s part of a very common phrase
used when parting company with someone. In English, instead of
‘saying goodbye’ we might say, “See you later.” It implies
that we’ll meet up again, right? In Russian, they say literally:
Until
the meeting. Listen:
До
встречи
Notice
how the ‘a’ at the end of встреча has
changed to an “ee” sound. Listen again…
There
are a whole bunch of songs that have that phrase in their lyrics. I
like this one the best…
(song):
Монокини – До встречи на звезде
Here’s
another four-letter cluster. Listen and repeat…
взгляд
That
has a V, a Z, a G and an L….взгляд
Here’s
another one…всплеск
F,
S, P and L…всплеск
Let’s
take a moment and do some cumulative review. My wife and I have
twins. Sophia is our little girl. And William is our …мальчик.
Speaking
of William, his favorite ____ is a remote control car.
игрушка.
Do
you remember the word for violin? It’s not out official new word—I
won’t hold you to it—but I’m curious if that mnemonic device
worked. I gave up the violin because
all I did was make scraping sounds.
violin…scraping…leads us to…. скрипка
And
what’s the Russian version of “See ya later”? Literally:
Until the meeting…
до
встречи
Those of you who’ve been studying Russian for a while might wonder why I’ve ignored the most common consonant cluster in Russian: здравствуйте It starts with a Z-D-R cluster…zdra…But I’m putting that one aside because we work with it in detail in Episode 4 of my Russian Made Easy podcast. Basically, I don’t want to repeat myself.
This
was by no means an exhaustive list of consonant clusters, but we did
cover the most common and most challenging ones. Next time, we’ll
learn a fun technique called consonant-vowel separation, which will
really help with your fluency. And since I’m gonna see you again in
the next episode, how should I end this one? Until the meeting!
До
встречи!
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 3 of Learn Russian Pronunciation. If you’re new to this
course I recommend going back to episode #1 because the lessons are
cumulative and they assume you’ve mastered everything in the
previous episodes. Anyway, today we’ll be working with consonant
clusters. That’s when you have three or more consonants in a row,
with no vowel to break them up. English has them. Take the consonants
S-P-L…Like the word Splash. That’s a cluster. Or this…I
read this in a recipe. Add five twelfths of a
pound. How many consonants are at the end of that word, twelfths?
You have an L, an F, a Th, and an S. That’s four in a row….which is
why it’s so hard to pronounce. Twelfths.
Russian,
bless its heart, has even more consonant clusters than English. And
because the rolled R is so often in these clusters, they can be tough
to pronounce correctly. For ex:
вдруг
You
have a V sound, a D, and a rolled R. Try it again…вдруг
Don’t
worry about the meaning. Let’s just get the sounds down. Here’s
another one…
вправо
It
has a cluster of F-P-R. Here’s the native speaker:
Next…скрипка
That
has an S-K-R cluster…like the English word “scrape”.
Listen again…
This
(violin playing) is a скрипка by the
way. Let’s use that connection between “scrape” and
“скрипка” as a way to
remember the word. Repeat this sentence:
I
gave up the violin because all I did was
make scraping sounds.
So,
that sentence gives us violin…and…scraping…which
leads us to the Russian word скрипка
Let’s
try those three ‘R’ clusters again: вдруг…вправо…скрипка
Of
course, not all clusters contain an R. Try these…
кстати
That
starts with a K, an S, and a T.
взлёт
That
had a V, a Z and an L.
Next:
сквозняк
An
S, a K, and a V.
Let’s
try those three again: кстати…взлёт…сквозняк
(violin
fades in) What’s this instrument again? скрипка
Good!
For
our official new word of this episode, let’s try this one: встреча
That’s
a cluster of four consonants in a row. An F, an S, a T, and an R.
вс…тре…ча
Hit
pause and practice that one a few times on your own. Alright, lets
see if you can you figure out the meaning.
So,
I’m sitting with a friend in Starbucks and when I offer to buy a
second round of drinks, he looks at his watch and shakes his head.
“I’ve got an important встреча with
a client. I’d better go.”
Or
this: At work, I tell our secretary I need to speak with the boss,
but she points to his office door. “He’s in a встреча
right now. But if you take a seat…”
How
would you translate that word? A встреча
is a meeting. And it’s part of a very common phrase
used when parting company with someone. In English, instead of
‘saying goodbye’ we might say, “See you later.” It implies
that we’ll meet up again, right? In Russian, they say literally:
Until
the meeting. Listen:
До
встречи
Notice
how the ‘a’ at the end of встреча has
changed to an “ee” sound. Listen again…
There
are a whole bunch of songs that have that phrase in their lyrics. I
like this one the best…
(song):
Монокини – До встречи на звезде
Here’s
another four-letter cluster. Listen and repeat…
взгляд
That
has a V, a Z, a G and an L….взгляд
Here’s
another one…всплеск
F,
S, P and L…всплеск
Let’s
take a moment and do some cumulative review. My wife and I have
twins. Sophia is our little girl. And William is our …мальчик.
Speaking
of William, his favorite ____ is a remote control car.
игрушка.
Do
you remember the word for violin? It’s not out official new word—I
won’t hold you to it—but I’m curious if that mnemonic device
worked. I gave up the violin because
all I did was make scraping sounds.
violin…scraping…leads us to…. скрипка
And
what’s the Russian version of “See ya later”? Literally:
Until the meeting…
до
встречи
Those of you who’ve been studying Russian for a while might wonder why I’ve ignored the most common consonant cluster in Russian: здравствуйте It starts with a Z-D-R cluster…zdra…But I’m putting that one aside because we work with it in detail in Episode 4 of my Russian Made Easy podcast. Basically, I don’t want to repeat myself.
This
was by no means an exhaustive list of consonant clusters, but we did
cover the most common and most challenging ones. Next time, we’ll
learn a fun technique called consonant-vowel separation, which will
really help with your fluency. And since I’m gonna see you again in
the next episode, how should I end this one? Until the meeting!
До
встречи!
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