< Alphabet 4—Phonetic Rules Reference
< Alphabet 4—Phonetic Rules Reference
Consonant Pairs | |
Voiced |
Unvoiced |
б |
п |
в |
ф |
г |
к |
д |
т |
з |
с |
ж |
ш |
A voiced consonant is pronounced with a strong vibration in the speaker's voice box. Try pronouncing each voiced consonant from the table above while touching your voice box. If you try to keep your voice box from vibrating as you say it, the consonant will come out like the corresponding unvoiced consonant from the right-hand column.
Pronunciation Rules:
A voiced consonant loses its voice when it comes at the very end of a word. For example:
| Spelled | Pronounced |
| друг | друк |
| муж | муш |
| враг | врак |
| зуб | зуп |
| год | гот |
| хлеб | хлеп |
A voiced consonant also loses its voice when it comes right before an unvoiced consonant. For example:
| Spelled | Pronounced |
| вторник | фторик |
| здравствуйте | здрафствуйте |
| ложка | лошка |
| всегда | фсегда |
Russian has five vowels each of which comes in a “hard” and a “soft” version. Generally when changing the ending of a word we replace a soft vowel with a soft vowel and a hard vowel with a hard one. For example, if the rule says we must change the а at the end to a ы, but there is a я at the end, we would change it to a и. But, there are exceptions.
| Vowel Pairs | |
| Hard Vowel | Soft Vowel |
| а | я |
| э | е |
| ы | и |
| у | ю |
| о | ё |
Exceptions: