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Pronunciation

Russian pronunciation guide

Russian spelling is regular, but it hides two things. Stress is not written in ordinary Russian text and it can fall on any syllable of a word, and an unstressed vowel does not keep the sound its letter usually has. Learn the reduction and devoicing rules below and you can read any word aloud — and until you can, every word on this site carries its stress mark, its IPA and an English-friendly hint.

Two pronunciation aids

Every example shows two. The IPA spelling is the international standard and is the primary one: it records what is actually said, including reduced vowels, so молоко is /məlɐˈko/ and not /moloko/. It takes a little learning, but it never misleads you.

The easy hint respells the word with English-like syllables. It follows the sound rather than the spelling, and it puts the stressed syllable in CAPITALS — which for Russian is the single most important thing a respelling can tell you. It is still only an approximation, so always check your ear against the audio.

Use the selector above to show one system, both, or neither.

How to read the easy hints on this site

  • CAPITALS mark the stress. khuh-rah-SHOH for хорошо́ — the last syllable, not the middle one.
  • The hint follows the sound, not the letters. An unstressed о is written uh or ah because that is what it becomes, so вода́ is vuh-DAH.
  • ы is written IH — like the i in bit with the tongue pulled further back. It is never ee, and it is not the same sound as и.
  • Softness is written with Y. мат is mat but мять is MYAHT; the Y is the palatalisation, not an extra vowel.
  • ш = SH, ч = CH, щ = SHCH, ж = ZH, х = KH.
  • ё is always stressed and is written YO, so it never needs a stress mark of its own.

The alphabet: 33 letters you can learn in an hour

Ten vowels, twenty-one consonants and two silent signs — learn them in four groups, and watch out for the letters that look Latin but are not.

Russian uses 33 letters: ten vowels, twenty-one consonants, and two signs — ъ and ь — that make no sound of their own. The important consequence is that Russian spelling is close to one letter per sound. Where English writes “through”, “tough” and “though” with the same four letters, Russian keeps its promises. Learn the letters and a handful of rules and you can pronounce any word correctly on sight. Do not put this off: an hour of focused practice now saves you from guessing for the next twenty-four lessons.

Learn them in four groups rather than alphabetically. Group one, the true friends — same shape, same sound — is А, К, М, О and Т, with П belonging here for its sound even though its shape is new. Group two, the false friends — seven Latin look-alikes with a different value — is where English speakers lose points: В is v, never b; Е is “ye”, never a plain e; Н is n, never h; Р is a rolled r; С is s, never c or k; У is “oo”, never “you”; and Х is the breathy kh of Scottish “loch”. Two more are routinely mis-guessed even though they are not Latin shapes: Й is the y of “yes”, and Ё is “yo” and always stressed. Group three is everything genuinely new — Б, Г, Д, Ж, З, И, Л, П, Ф, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ы, Э, Ю, Я, Ъ and Ь — and most of those nineteen stand for sounds you already have in English, so there is less to learn than the unfamiliar shapes suggest. Group four is not new shapes at all but pairs — А–Я, О–Ё, У–Ю, Э–Е, Ы–И — where the second member of each pair is the same vowel said after a softened consonant.

Two things are worth knowing about the alphabet as a written object, not just a sound system. First, the shapes change in italics and in handwriting: т looks like a Latin m, и like a Latin u, д like a g or a D, and л like a plain l. Five minutes with a handwriting chart will save you real confusion on menus, name tags and handwritten notes. Second, one letter does double duty: Г is always the hard g of “go”, never the soft g of “genre” — except in a short, closed list of words where it is pronounced [v] (его, сегодня) or [x] (бог, легко). These are collected again in the reading-traps section.

The respelling used everywhere in this course follows a fixed alphabet, and it is worth memorising alongside the letters themselves. Consonants: б b, в v (f at the end of a word), г g (kh at the end of a word), д d (t at the end of a word), ж zh (sh at the end of a word), з z (s at the end of a word), й y, к k, л l, м m, н n, п p, р r, с s, т t, ф f, х kh, ц ts, ч ch, ш sh, щ shch. Vowels, stressed then unstressed: а AH / uh, о OH / uh, е YEH / ih, ё always YOH, и EE / ih, ы IH / ih, у OO / uh, ю YOO / ih, э EH / uh, я YAH / ih. The stressed syllable is written in capital letters, which is the only mark of stress you will get in ordinary Russian text. Softness is shown by a y inside the vowel, never by an apostrophe: мя MYAH, де DYEH, лю LYOO, мать MYAT, and the pair брать BRYAT against брат BRAHT. A consonant cluster English cannot say at the start of a syllable borrows a small lowercase vowel to get going: где guh-DYEH, встреча fuh-STRYEH-chuh, вчера fuh-chih-RAH. And because a reduced vowel in a closed syllable needs no help in English spelling, it loses its h: очень OH-chin, город GOH-rut. Note the contrast that this preserves: сыр SIHR against сир SEER, and жить ZHIHT — the h is what keeps ы away from и.

  • Москва Moscow /mɐˈskva/ muh-SKVAH Two false friends in one word: С is s (not c) and В is v (not b). The unstressed о before the stress sounds like a short а.
  • метро underground, metro /mʲɪˈtro/ mih-TROH The е softens the м and weakens to [ɪ]; only the final stressed о is a real о.
  • университет university /ʊnʲɪvʲɪrsʲɪˈtʲet/ oo-nih-vihr-sih-TYET A long word, but every syllable follows the rules: unstressed у stays “oo”, every unstressed е collapses to [ɪ], and the stress sits on the last syllable.
  • хлеб bread /ˈxlʲep/ KHLYEP Х is the breathy kh of Scottish “loch”, and the final б devoices to p. The л here is soft.
  • язык language; tongue /jɪˈzɨk/ yih-ZIHK The opening я weakens to a short [ɪ] with a y-glide; ы is not “ee” — see its own section. One word, two common meanings.
  • чай tea /ˈtɕaj/ CHAY Ч is always soft and is never followed by ь for softness. Й is the y of “yes”, not a separate syllable.
  • врач doctor /ˈvratɕ/ VRAHCH В is v, Р is a rolled r, А is stressed and full, and the final ч is soft by nature.

See also: Reading traps: letters that lie, endings that change, and no articles · The ten vowels and five pairs · Hard and soft consonants: the distinction that changes meaning

The ten vowels and five pairs

Six plain vowels and four that soften the consonant before them — learn them as pairs, and note the two spelling restrictions that follow from always-hard and always-soft consonants.

Russian has ten vowel letters: а, э, и, о, у, ы, я, е, ё, ю. Six of them stand for a plain vowel, and the other four are the same vowel with a palatalised consonant in front: я is а after a soft consonant, е is э, ё is о, ю is у. Learn them as five pairs — а–я, э–е, о–ё, у–ю, ы–и — and you halve the work. The fifth pair is not a y-glide pair but a hardness pair: ы and и are close cousins, and the difference between them is mostly whether the consonant before them is hard or soft.

The qualities themselves: а as in “father”; э as in “bet”; и as in “machine”, but pure — hold it steady and do not let it slide into the English diphthong of “say”; о as in “bore” with the lips rounded from start to finish and no off-glide; у as in “moon”, again without a glide; ы has no English equivalent at all and needs its own section. The pure, non-diphthongised quality of Russian и, о and у is one of the fastest ways to sound less foreign, because English vowels of this type almost always move.

Where the glide actually appears depends on position. Word-initially, after another vowel, and after ъ or ь, the letters я, е, ё, ю are pronounced with a real [j]: яблоко [ˈjabləkə], моё [mɐˈjo], семья [sʲɪˈmʲja]. After a consonant they are not: the [j] is absorbed into the softening of that consonant, so нет is [nʲet] — one smooth sound, not [njet]. This is why the easy respelling writes NYET and not NYEH-T: the softness is in the consonant, not in a separate syllable.

Two spelling restrictions are worth learning on day one, because they explain a great deal of what looks irregular later. After the always-hard ж, ш and ц you never write я or ю, and after ц you never write ё either — though жё and шё are perfectly ordinary, as in жёлтый and шёпот. After the always-soft ч and щ you never write ы, я or ю. And the classic school rules follow from this: жи and ши are spelled with и even though they sound like ы (машина is [mɐˈʂɨnə]); ча and ща are spelled with а (чаша, площадь); чу and щу are spelled with у (чудо, щука). These are spelling rules, not pronunciation rules — knowing them lets you write down what you already hear.

  • мама mum /ˈmamə/ MAH-muh The stressed а is full and open; the final а reduces to a schwa but is still a separate syllable, never dropped.
  • дом house /ˈdom/ DOHM A stressed о is a genuine [o]: lips rounded and held, with no “w”-glide at the end as English “dome” would have.
  • это this is /ˈɛtə/ EH-tuh Э is the open e of “bet”, never the “ee” of “be”. The т stays hard because the vowel after it is о, not е.
  • ты you (informal, singular) /ˈtɨ/ TIH Ы after a hard т. Do not round the lips and do not pull the tongue forward into “tee”.
  • утро morning /ˈutrə/ OO-truh У keeps its quality even in a cluster; the о after the stress flattens to [ə].
  • люблю I love /lʲʊˈblʲu/ lyoo-BLYOO Both л are soft: the first because of ю, the second because of the final ю. ю after a consonant softens it and sounds like a plain “oo”.
  • нет no /ˈnʲet/ NYET Stressed е after a consonant: one syllable, the н softened, no separate y-sound. Contrast the word-initial [j] of его.

See also: The letter ы: the sound English has no word for · Vowel reduction: why о sounds like а · Hard and soft consonants: the distinction that changes meaning

Vowel reduction: why о sounds like а

Only the stressed vowel keeps its full colour — every other о weakens towards а and then to a schwa, and every unstressed е collapses into и.

This is the single biggest difference between Russian and the languages English speakers usually meet first — Italian, Spanish, Japanese — where every vowel is pronounced fully wherever it sits. In Russian only the stressed vowel is said in full. Every other vowel is shorter, duller and pulled towards a neutral centre. It is also the difference that English speakers find hardest to hear, because English reduces its own vowels too, just not in the same places and not by the same amount.

Unstressed о weakens in two stages, and the stage depends on how close the vowel is to the stress. In the syllable immediately before the stress it becomes [ɐ], a short а-like sound: вода [vɐˈda], она [ɐˈna], and the second о of хорошо [xərɐˈʂo]. Anywhere else — earlier in the word, or after the stress — it becomes [ə], a flat schwa: the first о of хорошо, both of the unstressed о in молоко [məlɐˈko], and the final о of утро. So молоко has three о and three different vowel qualities, and only the last of them is anything like the English “o”. Never say an unstressed о as [o]: it is the most common single giveaway of a foreign accent.

Unstressed а follows the same two-stage pattern ([ɐ] just before the stress, [ə] elsewhere), and unstressed е collapses into и. That last point is worth sitting with: in a great many positions е and и are simply homophonous, so весна is [vʲɪˈsna], метро is [mʲɪˈtro] and сегодня is [sʲɪˈvodʲnʲə]. If you hear [vʲɪsnɐ] there is no acoustic clue at all that the word is spelled with е rather than и; you know it because you know the word. Unstressed у is the one vowel that barely changes — it shortens but keeps its quality.

The practical consequence is blunt: you cannot read Russian aloud correctly from the letters alone unless you know where the stress is, because the stress decides which vowels are full and which collapse. о and а sound identical when unstressed; е and и sound identical when unstressed. This is why the course marks stress on every new word and gives IPA for every entry, and why learning a word without its stress is learning only half of it. A useful habit: when you meet a new word, say it aloud three times with the stress marked, then once without looking. If you can reproduce the reduced vowels from memory, you have actually learnt the word.

  • молоко milk /məlɐˈko/ muh-luh-KOH Three о, three sounds: [ə], [ɐ] and [o]. The first is far from the stress, the second is right before it, and only the third is a real о.
  • хорошо good, well /xərɐˈʂo/ khuh-ruh-SHOH The same pattern, and the stress is on the final syllable. The х is a soft, breathy sound made at the back of the throat.
  • голова head /ɡəlɐˈva/ guh-luh-VAH Stress on the last syllable, so both of the first two о collapse. Saying “go-lo-va” with three clear vowels sounds distinctly foreign.
  • вода water /vɐˈda/ vuh-DAH An unstressed а immediately before the stress is a short [ɐ] — noticeably duller than the full stressed а that follows it.
  • карандаш pencil /kərɐnˈdaʂ/ kuh-run-DAHSH Two unstressed а in different positions: the first is far from the stress and becomes a schwa, the second is right before it and keeps a short а colour.
  • сегодня today /sʲɪˈvodʲnʲə/ sih-VOHD-nyuh Three reductions at once: the е sounds like и, the г is pronounced [v], and the final е flattens to a schwa after the soft н.
  • спасибо thank you /spɐˈsʲibə/ spuh-SEE-buh Three syllables, three different treatments: the а before the stress weakens, the и keeps its full colour because it is stressed, and the final а is a bare schwa that is never dropped.

See also: Stress: free, mobile, and never written · The ten vowels and five pairs · The letter ы: the sound English has no word for · Syllables, rhythm and the shape of a Russian word

Stress: free, mobile, and never written

Stress can fall on any syllable, moves between related forms of the same word, is not marked in ordinary text, and in a few pairs changes the meaning entirely.

Russian stress is free: unlike French, where it falls at the end, or Polish and Czech, where it is fixed near the beginning, it can land on any syllable of any word. Compare кни́га, студе́нт, ма́ма and молоко́. There is no positional rule and no reliable pattern to extract from the spelling. When you learn a new Russian word you are learning its stress at the same time, as part of the same fact — which is why dictionaries and learners' textbooks print it, and why this course does too.

Stress is also mobile: it moves between forms of one and the same word, and sometimes the move is the only thing separating two meanings. го́род (city) becomes города́ in the plural, while the genitive singular of the same word is го́рода. вода́ (water) becomes во́ды in the plural. до́ма means “at home”, but дома́ means “houses”. The spelling gives you nothing here — the two forms of город are written differently only by an accent nobody prints.

In a small but memorable set of pairs, stress alone distinguishes two different words. пла́чу is “I pay” and плачу́ is “I cry”. мука́ is “flour” and му́ка is “torment”. за́мок is a castle and замо́к is a lock. у́же means “already” and уже́ means “narrower”. More often a wrong stress simply marks you out as a foreigner without preventing understanding — but with these pairs it genuinely changes what you have said, and a Russian listener will hear a different word.

Two habits make this manageable rather than frightening. First, always learn a noun together with one other form and a verb together with one conjugated form: го́род — города́, вода́ — во́ды, звони́т, not зво́нит. Second, remember that stress drives reduction, so getting it right automatically gets the vowels right too. There are a few stable points of reference: ё is always stressed, the adjective and pronoun ending -ого/-его is always unstressed and always pronounced [əvə]/[ɪvə], and the reflexive ending -ся is always unstressed. Beyond those, treat every word as its own case.

  • плачу I pay /ˈplatɕʊ/ PLAH-choo Stressed on the first syllable — пла́чу, from платить. The two spellings are identical; only the stress tells you which verb this is.
  • плачу I cry /plɐˈtɕu/ pluh-CHOO Stressed on the second syllable — плачу́, from плакать. Same letters, different word.
  • мука flour /mʊˈka/ moo-KAH мука́ — the unstressed у shortens slightly but keeps its colour, and the stress falls on the ending.
  • мука torment, suffering /ˈmukə/ MOO-kuh му́ка — move the stress forward one syllable and you have a completely different noun.
  • город city /ˈɡorət/ GOH-rut The full о only exists under stress; after the stress it is a schwa, and the final д devoices to т.
  • города cities (nominative plural) /ɡərɐˈda/ guh-ruh-DAH The stress jumps to the ending in the plural. The genitive singular of the same word is го́рода, [ˈɡorədə] — spelled identically, stressed differently.
  • дома at home /ˈdomə/ DOH-muh до́ма, stress on the first syllable. The nominative plural of дом is дома́, [dɐˈma] — identical letters, different stress, different word.

See also: Vowel reduction: why о sounds like а · The letter ё: always stressed, usually not printed · Intonation: the five constructions that carry the grammar

The letter ё: always stressed, usually not printed

ё is the only letter that is always stressed and the only one that ordinary Russian texts routinely replace with е — which makes it a real reading trap.

ё is a y-glide plus о, and it is always stressed. That is the whole rule, and it has effectively no exceptions in the standard language. Wherever you see the two dots, you have found the stressed syllable of the word, which makes ё the single most useful piece of information Russian orthography ever volunteers. ещё [jɪˈɕːo], всё [ˈfsʲo], её [jɪˈjo], идёт [ɪˈdʲot], самолёт [səmɐˈlʲot], живёт [ʐɨˈvʲot]. In a few long compounds such as трёхэтажный the ё carries secondary rather than primary stress, but it is still pronounced as a full [o] and is never reduced.

Here is the trap: in ordinary Russian printing, ё is optional. The official spelling rules settled in 1956 require the dots only where dropping them would cause a genuine misreading — in words like всё and все, in most proper names, and in dictionaries — and permit е everywhere else. Novels, newspapers, websites, subtitles and text messages overwhelmingly print е. So you will constantly meet text where the dots have silently vanished, and only your knowledge of the word tells you whether to say [o] or [ɪ]. This is not a beginner's problem that goes away; it is a permanent feature of reading Russian.

The pairs that matter most are the ones where the dots carry the entire meaning. всё [ˈfsʲo], “everything”, and все [fsʲe], “everyone”, are one dot apart — and in most printed Russian that dot is missing, so the two appear identically as все. небо [ˈnʲebə], “sky”, and нёбо [ˈnʲobə], “the roof of the mouth”, are the same case again. узнаем [ʊzˈnajem], “we will find out”, and узнаём [ʊznɐˈjom], “we are finding out”, differ in aspect and stress and print the same way. In each pair the meaning is not recoverable from the page. This course always writes the dots, and its answer-checking treats a missing ё as “almost correct” with a hint rather than a flat error — except in a short list of pairs where the dot carries the entire meaning, and there the wrong vowel is simply the wrong word.

One mechanical note: ё never takes an additional stress mark. Because it is always stressed, writing an acute over it would be redundant, and you will never see it in this course. When you are reading an unaccented Russian text and you suspect a missing ё, the fastest check is whether the word contains a soft consonant or a й followed by what looks like о — that combination is very often a disguised ё.

  • ещё more; still; yet /jɪˈɕːo/ yih-SHCHOH The first е is unstressed and weakens to [ɪ]; the ё carries the stress. щ is a single long soft sound, not sh plus ch.
  • всё everything /ˈfsʲo/ FSYOH One syllable, so the whole word is stressed. Printed without the dots it is indistinguishable from все, “everyone”.
  • её her /jɪˈjo/ yih-YOH The first syllable is an unstressed е with a real y-glide; the second is ё and takes the stress. Never “ee-yoo”.
  • идёт he/she/it goes, is going /ɪˈdʲot/ ih-DYOHT Written as идет in most real texts, which is exactly why you must know the verb. The д is soft because of the ё.
  • самолёт aeroplane /səmɐˈlʲot/ suh-muh-LYOHT Literally “flies by itself”. Both of the first two о are reduced; only the ё at the end is a full vowel.
  • небо sky /ˈnʲebə/ NYEH-buh Stress on the first syllable, е sounded as [e]. Written with dots on the second vowel it becomes a different word.
  • нёбо roof of the mouth, palate /ˈnʲobə/ NYOH-buh The ё forces the stress onto the first syllable and turns the vowel into [o]. Spelled without dots, the two words look identical.

See also: Stress: free, mobile, and never written · Reading traps: letters that lie, endings that change, and no articles · Vowel reduction: why о sounds like а

Hard and soft consonants: the distinction that changes meaning

Most Russian consonants have a soft twin produced by raising the middle of the tongue, and the pair can be the only difference between two words.

Softening — palatalisation — is the feature of Russian sound that English speakers most often fail to hear, let alone produce. A soft consonant is made in the same place as its hard twin, but with the middle of the tongue raised towards the hard palate at the same moment. The nearest thing in English is the difference between the n of “noon” and the n of “news” in accents that keep them apart, or the way the t of “tea” is said further forward than the t of “trap”. Imagine the consonant followed by the very beginning of a y-sound that never gets released. That is it.

Softness is written in exactly two ways. First, by ь immediately after the consonant: мать, день, ночь, любовь. Second, by one of the vowels я, ю, ё, и or е following it: мя, лю, тё, ми, не. Note that и softens too — ми is [mʲi] — which surprises learners because и does not look like a fronting vowel. The vowels а, о, у, э and ы never soften a consonant, so ма, мо, му, мэ and мы are all hard. Most consonants come in hard and soft pairs — б, п, в, ф, г, к, д, т, з, с, м, н, р and л — while ж, ш and ц are permanently hard and ч, щ and й permanently soft.

The reason this matters is that softness is not decoration; it distinguishes words. мат and мять, брат and брать, нос and нёс, лук and люк, ест and есть, угол and уголь, мыл and мил. In each pair the consonants and the vowels are all but identical and only the palatalisation tells you which word you have heard. Practise these as drills: say the hard version, then the soft one, then let someone test you. Ten minutes on these pairs is worth more than an hour of passive listening.

One further detail you will hear but do not need to produce. In fluent speech a consonant can pick up softness from a soft consonant that follows it, so дверь is very often [dʲvʲerʲ] with a soft д as well as a soft в. This assimilation varies by speaker and region and is not something a beginner needs to master — being understood does not depend on it. What does matter is the opposite direction: never soften a consonant that is followed by а, о, у, э or ы, and never leave a ь unpronounced.

  • брат brother /ˈbrat/ BRAHT The р and the т are both hard, and the final т is a plain, unreleased [t].
  • брать to take /ˈbratʲ/ BRYAT One letter more, one sound different: the ь softens the final т, and the y inside the vowel carries that softness — брать BRYAT against брат BRAHT.
  • нос nose /ˈnos/ NOHS Hard н, hard с. The о is stressed and therefore a genuine [o].
  • нёс he was carrying /ˈnʲos/ NYOHS The ё both stresses the syllable and softens the н. Compare with нос: same consonant frame, different word.
  • лук onion /ˈluk/ LOOK Hard л — the tongue tip touches the back of the upper teeth, further forward than an English l.
  • люк hatch, manhole /ˈlʲuk/ LYOOK The ю softens the л. Say “look”, then raise the middle of your tongue as if starting a y — that is люк.
  • есть to eat; there is /ˈjesʲtʲ/ YEST Word-initial е has a real y-glide, then both the с and the т are softened by the ь. Contrast ест, “he eats”, where neither is soft.

See also: Always hard, always soft: ж ш ц and ч щ й · The soft sign ь and the hard sign ъ · The letter ы: the sound English has no word for

Always hard, always soft: ж ш ц and ч щ й

Six consonants never change their hardness or softness, and that single fact explains the spelling rules every Russian child learns as rhymes.

ж, ш and ц are always hard. There is no soft version of them in standard Russian, and no ь can make one. This has a curious consequence for spelling: after ж and ш the vowel и is written, but it is pronounced as ы. So машина is [mɐˈʂɨnə] and живой is [ʐɨˈvoj] — both spelled with и, both said with ы. The same applies to ц: цирк is [ˈtsɨrk]. If you hear a Russian say “muh-SHIH-nuh”, nothing has gone wrong — that is simply what a hard ш followed by и sounds like.

ч, щ and й are always soft. ч is [tɕ], close to the English “ch” of “cheese” but with the tongue blade flat and low rather than bunched. щ is [ɕː], a single long, soft, hissing sound — not “sh” followed by “ch”, and not a quick “shch”; hold the sh and raise the middle of the tongue, and make it longer than you think is natural. й is [j], the y of “yes”, and it never forms a syllable of its own. Because these three are permanently soft, they never take ь to mark softness; where you see ь after them it is doing a grammatical job instead.

The spelling rules follow directly, and they are the ones Russian schoolchildren learn as jingles. жи and ши are written with и, never with ы — жизнь, машина, широкий. ча and ща are written with а, never with я — чаша, чаща, площадь. чу and щу are written with у, never with ю — чудо, щука, хочу, ищу. After ч and щ you will never see ы, я or ю. After ц you write и or ы, but never я, ю or ё. None of these are pronunciation rules — they are conventions that keep the written language tidy — but knowing them means you can write down what you already hear instead of guessing.

Two listening consequences for an English ear. Because ж and ш are hard, журнал and хорошо do not contain the soft, lip-rounded [ʒ] of French “jour” or the “s” of English “pleasure”; they are harder and flatter than you expect. And because щ is long and soft while ш is short and hard, the pair distinguishes words: чаща, “a thicket”, [ˈtɕaɕːə], and чаша, “a cup or bowl”, [ˈtɕaʂə] — same stress, same vowels, and only the length and softness of the sibilant tell them apart. Drill that pair until you can hear it without thinking.

  • машина car /mɐˈʂɨnə/ muh-SHIH-nuh Spelled with и, pronounced with ы, because ш can never be soft. The а before the stress dulls to [ɐ].
  • цирк circus /ˈtsɨrk/ TSIHRK ц is a single hard sound, t and s released together. Here it is spelled with и but sounds like ы.
  • часы clock; watch /tɕɪˈsɨ/ chuh-SIH ча is written with а, never я. The first syllable is unstressed and weakens; the stress is on the ы.
  • щука pike (the fish) /ˈɕːukə/ SHCHOO-kuh щу is written with у, never ю. щ is one long soft consonant — hold it for noticeably longer than a ш.
  • площадь square (in a town) /ˈploɕːɪtʲ/ PLOH-shchut ща with а, and a feminine noun of the third declension, which is why it ends in ь even though щ is already soft.
  • счастье happiness /ˈɕːasʲtʲjə/ SHCHAH-styuh сч before a vowel is read as щ, one long [ɕː]. The ь here is a separator, not a softness marker: it gives the following е its own y-glide.
  • йогурт yoghurt /ˈjoɡʊrt/ YOH-goort й is the y of “yes” and never a syllable on its own. The unstressed у shortens but keeps its quality.

See also: Hard and soft consonants: the distinction that changes meaning · The soft sign ь and the hard sign ъ · Reading traps: letters that lie, endings that change, and no articles

Voiced and voiceless: devoicing and assimilation

Six consonant pairs differ only in whether the vocal folds vibrate — and Russian adjusts that voicing automatically at the end of a word and inside a cluster.

There are six pairs: б–п, в–ф, г–к, д–т, ж–ш, з–с. Within each pair the place and manner of articulation are identical and the only difference is voicing — whether the vocal folds are buzzing. Everything in this section follows from that single fact, and it is worth learning the six pairs cold, because Russian uses them to make automatic adjustments that the spelling never records.

Word-final devoicing is the first adjustment and it is unconditional: a voiced consonant at the end of a word is pronounced voiceless. зуб is [ˈzup], хлеб is [ˈxlʲep], город is [ˈɡorət], нож is [ˈnoʂ], глаз is [ˈɡlas], лёд is [ˈlʲot], друг is [ˈdruk], and the preposition в standing on its own is [f]. The letter on the page does not change. This runs in the opposite direction to most reading traps — you see a б and must say a п — and it applies to every word without exception.

Regressive assimilation is the second adjustment, and it works backwards from the end of a cluster: the last consonant decides the voicing of the one before it. Before a voiced consonant, a voiceless one becomes voiced — сделать is [ˈzdʲelətʲ], вокзал is [vɐɡˈzal], просьба is [ˈprozʲbə], футбол is [fʊdˈbol]. Before a voiceless consonant, a voiced one becomes voiceless — водка is [ˈvotkə], ложка is [ˈloʂkə], редко is [ˈrʲetkə]. Again, the spelling keeps the historical letter and only the sound changes.

в is the odd one out, twice over. It devoices to [f] before any voiceless consonant and at the end of a word — вкус [ˈfkus], второй [ftɐˈroj] — but it never triggers voicing in a consonant before it. So свой keeps its [s] even though the в is voiced, and свет keeps its [s] too. A third irregularity sits on г: in его and сегодня, and in the adjective and pronoun ending -ого/-его, the written г is pronounced [v]; in бог it is [x]; and in легко and мягко it is [x] rather than the [k] you would expect. These are a closed, memorisable list, and they are collected again in the reading-traps section.

  • зуб tooth /ˈzup/ ZOOP The б is written but never voiced here: word-final devoicing turns it into п. Add the plural ending and the б comes back — in зубы it is followed by a vowel and stays voiced.
  • вчера yesterday /ftɕɪˈra/ fuh-chih-RAH The prefix в- devoices to [f] before the voiceless ч, the е after it sounds like и, and only the final а is stressed. Never “vchera”.
  • сделать to do (perfective) /ˈzdʲelətʲ/ ZDYEH-lyut The prefix с- voices to [z] before the voiced д. Pronouncing it with a clean [s] is the single most common cluster mistake learners make.
  • вокзал railway station /vɐɡˈzal/ vug-ZAHL The к voices to [ɡ] before the voiced з. The first о is unstressed and dull.
  • водка vodka /ˈvotkə/ VOHT-kuh Assimilation running the other way: the д devoices to т before the voiceless к. Nobody says “vod-ka”.
  • свой one's own /ˈsvoj/ SVOY The exception to the rule: в does not voice a consonant before it, so the с stays [s]. Identical treatment in свет and ответ.
  • вкус taste /ˈfkus/ FKOOS в becomes [f] before a voiceless consonant — and then devoices again at the end of the word in the final с. Two adjustments, one syllable.

See also: Consonant clusters: what natives actually say · Reading traps: letters that lie, endings that change, and no articles · Always hard, always soft: ж ш ц and ч щ й

Consonant clusters: what natives actually say

Russian stacks consonants freely and then quietly simplifies them; a short list of reductions is standard, and the spelling never shows any of them.

Russian tolerates consonant clusters that English does not, and it tolerates them at the start of words: встреча begins with four consonants, взгляд with three, здравствуйте with five before you get to a vowel. The first thing to internalise is that these are said as a single gesture, not as a sequence of separate sounds, and that you must never insert a helping vowel to break them up. кто is one syllable, [xto]; saying “kuh-TOH” adds a syllable that does not exist and is instantly audible as foreign.

The second thing is that a number of clusters are simplified in standard speech, and the simplification is not sloppy or colloquial — it is what every educated speaker, including a newsreader, does. In здравствуйте the first в is not pronounced: [ˈzdrastvʊjɪtʲə]. In солнце the л disappears: [ˈsontsə]. In чувство the first в disappears: [ˈtɕustvə]. In кто the к is pronounced [x], giving [xto]. In что the ч is pronounced as the sound of ш, [ʂ], giving [ʂto] — and the same in чтобы, ничто and кое-что. In счастливый and счастье the сч is read as щ, [ɕː]. In a small, closed set of everyday words — конечно, скучно, яичница, булочная, нарочно — the чн is read as шн; in most other words, such as вечный, молочный and точный, it stays чн.

It is worth being clear about where the line runs, because this is exactly the kind of thing learners over-generalise. Everything in the paragraph above is standard: the spelling keeps the historical letter and the pronunciation drops or changes it, and both are correct. What is not standard is a further layer of casual compression: здрасте for здравствуйте, щас for сейчас, ваще for вообще, скока for сколько. You will hear these constantly in fast speech and in messages between friends, and you should be able to recognise them, but this course neither teaches nor accepts them — the standard spelling and the standard pronunciation are the norm throughout.

How to practise. Take a cluster word and say it slowly without adding a vowel, letting the consonants run into each other; then speed up. Record yourself saying кто, солнце and здравствуйте and compare against the text-to-speech. The reductions will feel like cheating at first, because the letters are right there on the page. They are not cheating: Russian spelling is partly historical, and the sound is the truth.

  • здравствуйте hello (formal or plural) /ˈzdrastvʊjɪtʲə/ ZDRAH-stvuy-tyuh The first в — the one in здрав — is never pronounced. Standard, not colloquial: dropping it is simply how the word is said.
  • солнце sun /ˈsontsə/ SOHN-tsih The л is silent. Two syllables, not three, and the ц is one hard sound.
  • кто who /ˈxto/ KHTOH One syllable. The к is pronounced as [x] in normal speech; in deliberately careful diction some speakers keep the [k], and both are accepted.
  • что what /ˈʂto/ SHTOH The ч is read as ш, always and everywhere: also in чтобы, ничто and кое-что. Never “chto”.
  • конечно of course /kɐˈnʲeʂnə/ kuh-NYESH-nuh чн is read as шн in this word. The same happens in скучно and яичница, but not in вечный or точный.
  • счастливый happy /ɕːɪˈslʲivɨj/ shchuh-STLEE-viy сч before a vowel is read as the long soft щ. The -ый ending is a flat [ɨj], not two distinct syllables.
  • чувство feeling /ˈtɕustvə/ CHOOF-stvuh The first в — the one before the с — is not pronounced, but the second one, before the т, is. Two syllables.

See also: Voiced and voiceless: devoicing and assimilation · Reading traps: letters that lie, endings that change, and no articles · Syllables, rhythm and the shape of a Russian word

The letter ы: the sound English has no word for

ы is not “ee” and not “oo” — it is made with the tongue pulled back and the lips spread, it only ever follows a hard consonant, and confusing it with и is the most obvious marker of a foreign accent.

Here is a reliable way to produce it. Say the i of English “bit” and hold it. Now, keeping your lips spread and completely unrounded, drag the whole body of your tongue backwards and slightly down, as if you were about to say “oo” and then refused at the last moment. What you get is a darker, more hollow sound with no brightness in it at all. A second route to the same place: say “ee” as in “see”, hold the vowel steady, and push your tongue as far back as it will go without letting your lips round. Either route works; the important part is that ы is a back vowel made with spread lips, which is a combination English simply does not use.

It only ever follows a hard consonant, or nothing at all. мы, ты, сын, дым, рыба, сыр, молодой. It never begins a word, it never follows a soft consonant, and it never follows ч, щ or й — because those are permanently soft. Conversely, и softens whatever precedes it, so the choice between ы and и is simultaneously a choice about the consonant. That is why мыл and мил, быть and бить, ты and the syllable ти are real contrasts and not spelling variants.

English speakers hear ы as “ee” because English has no [ɨ] and the ear files it into the nearest available category. The result is that a learner says ми where the word is мы, and a Russian hears a different word — or, more often, hears no word at all and has to work backwards from context. This is the most immediately audible feature of a foreign accent in Russian, ahead even of stress, and ten minutes of drilling the pairs below will do more for how you sound than an hour anywhere else. Say ты, then ти, then ты again; say быть, then бить, then быть. Record yourself and check that the two versions are actually different.

Two distribution facts to finish. First, ы does follow ж, ш and ц — but after ж and ш it is spelled и (машина, жизнь), while after ц it is genuinely written ы (улицы, пальцы, огурцы). Second, when a prefix ending in a hard consonant is added to a root beginning with и, that и turns into ы: играть gives сыграть, [sɨˈɡratʲ], and история gives предыстория. You will meet this constantly with verb prefixes and it always looks like a spelling error until you know the rule. And one vowel-quality pair worth keeping in mind even though it is not about ы: небо and нёбо differ by a single dot, which most printed Russian does not show.

  • мы we /ˈmɨ/ MIH Hard м followed by ы. The syllable ми is a different sound entirely, with a soft м and a front vowel.
  • ты you (informal, singular) /ˈtɨ/ TIH Say this, then say the syllable ти, then say this again. If the two versions are identical you are not yet making ы.
  • быть to be /ˈbɨtʲ/ BIHT Hard б, then ы, then a soft т. The ь softens the consonant before it and adds no syllable of its own.
  • бить to beat, to strike /ˈbʲitʲ/ BEET One vowel letter apart from быть and a completely different verb. This is the pair to drill until the difference is automatic.
  • небо sky /ˈnʲebə/ NYEH-buh Included here as the other vowel trap: a single dot, usually absent from print, turns “sky” into the next word.
  • нёбо roof of the mouth, palate /ˈnʲobə/ NYOH-buh Same letters, different vowel, different word. Both are stressed on the first syllable; only the vowel quality changes.
  • улицы streets /ˈulʲɪtsɨ/ OO-lih-tsih After ц the ы really is written as ы. The ц stays hard and the final ы is short and dull, not a clear “ee”.

See also: The ten vowels and five pairs · Hard and soft consonants: the distinction that changes meaning · The letter ё: always stressed, usually not printed

The soft sign ь and the hard sign ъ

Two letters make no sound at all: ь softens the consonant before it and carries several grammatical jobs, while ъ appears only after a prefix before е, ё, ю or я.

The soft sign ь has three separate jobs. The first is phonetic: it softens the consonant immediately before it, whether that consonant is at the end of a word — мать, день, любовь, соль — or in the middle before another consonant, as in письмо and меньше. It never forms a syllable of its own, so мать is one syllable and письмо is two.

The second job is grammatical, and here the ь changes nothing about the sound. It marks the infinitive of a verb: читать, говорить, спать. It marks the ты-form of every verb, whose ending -шь always keeps its soft sign: читаешь, делаешь, идёшь. It marks the singular imperative of many verbs: сядь, встань, поставь. It marks the reflexive endings -ся and -сь. And on nouns it signals the third declension — a feminine noun ending in a consonant always takes one: ночь, мышь, дочь, вещь, радость. Masculine nouns ending in a soft consonant take ь too (день, учитель, словарь), so the sign alone does not tell you the gender — but a noun whose dictionary form ends in a consonant with no ь is masculine and ends in a hard consonant: стол, дом, город.

The third job is separation. Before е, ё, ю or я inside a word, ь shows that the vowel is pronounced with its own distinct [j] and that the consonant before it does not simply soften into it. Compare семья [sʲɪˈmʲja], where you hear a clear y-glide and get three syllables, with a word like сестра, where the е softens the с and there is no glide at all. The same goes for платье [ˈplatʲjə], воробьи [vərɐˈbʲji], друзья [drʊˈzʲja] and ружьё [rʊˈʐjo]. If you drop the ь here you do not merely misspell the word — you change the syllable count and therefore the rhythm.

The hard sign ъ does the separator's job and nothing else. It appears after a prefix ending in a consonant, before е, ё, ю or я, and it tells you that the prefix's consonant stays hard while the vowel that follows begins with its own [j]: объект [ɐˈbjekt], подъезд [pɐdˈjest], съел [sjel], объявление [ɐbjɪˈvlʲenʲɪje], въезд, съёмка. It never occurs anywhere else in a native word. Neither sign is optional in the sense of being ignorable: omitting one produces a different word or no word at all. But neither adds a vowel of its own, so in the easy respelling both are absorbed into the glide rather than written as a separate sound: объект ub-YEKT, подъезд pud-YEST, съел SYEL. There are no apostrophes anywhere in this course's respellings.

  • мать mother /ˈmatʲ/ MYAT The ь softens the т and adds nothing you can hear as a separate sound, so the respelling gives it no letter of its own: мать MYAT.
  • ночь night /ˈnotɕ/ NOHCH The ч is already permanently soft, so the ь here is purely grammatical: it marks a feminine noun of the third declension.
  • читать to read /tɕɪˈtatʲ/ chih-TYAT The final ь is the infinitive marker. The first syllable is unstressed, so the е sounds like и.
  • сядь sit down (informal, to one person) /ˈsʲatʲ/ SYAT One syllable, two soft consonants: the я softens the с and the ь softens the д. The imperative always keeps its soft sign.
  • семья family /sʲɪˈmʲja/ sih-MYAH Three syllables, because the ь gives the я its own y-glide. Without it you would have two syllables and a different word.
  • платье dress /ˈplatʲjə/ PLAH-tyuh The ь separates the soft т from the е, so the е is pronounced [jə]. The final vowel is a bare schwa, not a clear “e”.
  • подъезд entrance; stairwell of a building /pɐdˈjest/ pud-YEST The ъ after the prefix под- keeps the д hard and lets the е start with its own [j]. The final зд is pronounced [st].

See also: Hard and soft consonants: the distinction that changes meaning · Always hard, always soft: ж ш ц and ч щ й · The letter ы: the sound English has no word for

Intonation: the five constructions that carry the grammar

Russian marks sentence type by pitch alone — ИК-1 to ИК-5 — and ИК-3, the sharp rise that turns a statement into a yes/no question, is the one English speakers must learn deliberately.

Because Russian has no auxiliary verb and does not invert subject and verb, intonation is not decoration here — it is grammar. Ты студент. and Ты студент? contain the same words in the same order, and only the pitch tells you which one is a question. The standard description used in Russian language teaching is a set of intonation constructions, интонационные конструкции, numbered ИК-1 to ИК-7. Five of them cover A1 and the overwhelming majority of everyday speech, and each one is defined by where its intonation centre falls and what the pitch does there.

ИК-1 is the statement. Pitch runs level or gently rising through the part before the centre, falls steadily on the stressed syllable of the last meaningful word, and stays low to the end. Это мой дом. The fall is what signals “I have finished”. English does this too, so ИК-1 transfers across almost untouched. ИК-2 is the wh-question, used with кто, что, где, куда, когда, как, почему and сколько. Here there is a sharp, emphatic fall on the stressed syllable of the question word itself, and the remainder of the sentence is low and flat: Где ты живёшь? puts its peak and drop on где. English speakers habitually put the fall at the end of the sentence instead; in Russian it comes early, and the tail is deliberately uninteresting.

ИК-3 is the yes/no question, and it is the construction the whole question system rests on. Pitch rises level through the sentence up to the intonation centre — normally the stressed syllable of the final word, or of whichever word carries the logical focus — then leaps sharply up on that syllable and holds high and level to the end, with no fall at all. Ты студе́нт? — the rise lands on дент and the voice does not come back down. The shape is not the same as an English yes/no question: English rises more gradually and often drifts, whereas ИК-3 is a steep jump concentrated on a single syllable followed by a flat, high tail. If you use the English contour you will usually still be understood, but you will sound hesitant, or as though you are asking the question again in disbelief. Note that the centre moves with the focus: Ты́ студент? asks whether it is you, as opposed to someone else, and the rise lands on ты.

ИК-4 is the construction of contrast and peremption — the question you ask back, or ask again because the answer should already be known. Pitch falls gently before the centre, rises sharply on it and stays high: the classic case is А ты?, “and you?”. ИК-5 is the exclamation of admiration, and it is the only one with two peaks: a rise on the first centre and a fall on the second, as in Какой сегодня хороший день!. The full seven-construction system also includes ИК-6, an exclamation carried on a single high level tone, and ИК-7, the sharp, tense fall of emphatic negation or refusal — Не надо! At A1 you need 1 to 5, and of those you need ИК-3 the most: without it you cannot ask a yes/no question at all, and with it you can ask one without learning a single new grammatical rule.

  • Это мой дом. This is my house. /ˈɛtə ˈmoj ˈdom/ EH-tuh MOY DOHM. ИК-1. The voice falls on дом and stays low. Everything before the centre is flat and unemphatic.
  • Где ты живёшь? Where do you live? /ˈɡdʲe tɨ ʐɨˈvʲoʂ/ guh-DYEH TIH zhih-VYOHSH? ИК-2. A sharp fall on Где, then low and flat all the way to the end. Do not let the voice rise on живёшь.
  • Ты студент? Are you a student? /tɨ stʊˈdʲent/ TIH stoo-DYENT? ИК-3. The rise lands on дент and holds high; there is no fall. Word order is exactly the same as in the statement — no inversion, no auxiliary.
  • Ты дома? Are you at home? /tɨ ˈdomə/ TIH DOH-muh? ИК-3 again, on a two-word sentence. This is the pattern you will use for hundreds of everyday questions.
  • А ты? And you? /a ˈtɨ/ AH TIH? ИК-4. A gentle fall on А, then a sharp rise on ты that stays high. Used when you throw a question back at the other person.
  • Какой сегодня хороший день! What a lovely day! /kɐˈkoj sʲɪˈvodʲnʲə xɐˈroʂɨj ˈdʲenʲ/ kuh-KOY sih-VOHD-nyuh khuh-ROH-shiy DYEN! ИК-5, the only construction with two peaks: a rise on Какой and a second rise-and-fall on день.
  • Молодец! Well done! /məlɐˈdʲets/ muh-luh-DYETS! Praise is normally an energetic ИК-1, or, in the fuller seven-construction description, a single high level peak (ИК-6). What matters is that the voice does not drift up at the end, which would turn praise into a question.

See also: Stress: free, mobile, and never written · Syllables, rhythm and the shape of a Russian word

Syllables, rhythm and the shape of a Russian word

One syllable per vowel, no helping vowels inside clusters, no doubled consonants to lengthen — and a stress-timed rhythm that is the engine behind all the reduction.

A Russian word has exactly as many syllables as it has vowel letters. Consonant clusters do not create syllables and never attract a helping vowel, however un-English they look: кто is one syllable, [xto]; взгляд is one syllable, [vzlʲat]; встреча is three, [fstrʲɪˈtɕa], and the opening встр is said as a single gesture. The temptation to insert a schwa — “kuh-TOH”, “vuh-ZGLYAHT” — is strong and it adds syllables that do not exist. Say the cluster as one movement and let the vowels carry the count.

Russian rhythm is stress-timed, like English: the beats fall on the stressed syllables and everything between them is compressed. It is not as extreme as English, and some descriptions put Russian somewhere between stress-timed and syllable-timed, but for practical purposes treat it as stress-timed — that is precisely what forces the reduction described earlier. A long word is not a row of evenly spaced syllables; it is one strong beat with the rest flattened around it. This is good news for an English speaker, because the underlying rhythm is familiar. What is unfamiliar is that Russian achieves it by changing vowel quality, not by weakening whole syllables into nothing.

Unlike Italian, Russian has no geminate consonants that change meaning. Doubled letters in the spelling are pronounced short: класс is [klas], тонна is [ˈtonə], русский is [ˈruskʲɪj], группа is [ˈɡrupə]. There are only two genuine exceptions, and both are worth knowing. щ is intrinsically long, [ɕː] — holding it is part of the sound, not an affectation. And a doubled жж in a handful of words such as дрожжи and вожжи is also pronounced long. Nothing else is lengthened, and lengthening a consonant that should be short will make you sound as though you are stuttering.

Two endings behave in ways that catch readers out constantly. The adjective and pronoun ending -ого/-его is never pronounced as it looks: it is [-əvə] or [-ɪvə], with the г read as [v]. So красного is [ˈkrasnəvə], моего is [mɐjɪˈvo], and the standalone words его and её are [jɪˈvo] and [jɪˈjo]. The reflexive endings -ся and -сь are reduced too: -ся is a flat [sə] with almost no vowel in it, so учиться is [ʊˈtɕitsə], and the ц and с of -ться merge into a single [ts]. Finally, remember that unstressed е collapses into и, which means the two letters are homophonous in a great many positions and you cannot recover the spelling from the sound — you recover it from knowing the word.

  • красного red (genitive masculine or neuter) /ˈkrasnəvə/ KRAH-snuh-vuh The -ого ending is [-əvə], never [-oɡo]. The г becomes в and the unstressed о becomes a schwa.
  • его his; him /jɪˈvo/ yih-VOH Two syllables, not three, and the г is [v]. The same ending rule applies to a great many adjective and pronoun forms.
  • весна spring /vʲɪˈsna/ vih-SNAH The unstressed е sounds exactly like и. Hearing [vʲɪsnɐ] gives you no clue at all that the word is spelled with е.
  • взгляд glance; view /ˈvzlʲat/ vuh-ZGLYAHT One syllable, four consonants in the spelling. The я softens the л; the final д devoices to т.
  • встреча meeting /fstrʲɪˈtɕa/ fuh-strih-CHAH Three syllables. The в voices to [f] before the voiceless с, and the opening four consonants are one gesture with no vowel inside them.
  • учиться to study /ʊˈtɕitsə/ oo-CHIH-tsyuh The reflexive -ся is a flat [sə] with barely any vowel, and the ть and с of -ться merge into one [ts].
  • русский Russian /ˈruskʲɪj/ ROO-skiy Doubled с in the spelling, single с in the sound. The к is softened by the и that follows it.

See also: Vowel reduction: why о sounds like а · Stress: free, mobile, and never written · Consonant clusters: what natives actually say

Reading traps: letters that lie, endings that change, and no articles

Seven Cyrillic letters look like Latin ones and mean something else; add a short list of spellings that never sound as written and a set of false-friend words, and you have every trap a beginner will fall into.

Start with the letters, because this is where the damage is done on day one. The true friends — same shape, same sound — are А, К, М, О and Т. The false friends are seven Latin look-alikes with a different value, and they cause almost every early misreading: В is v, never b; Е is “ye”, never a plain e; Н is n, never h; Р is a rolled r; С is s, never c or k; У is “oo”, never “you” or “uh”; and Х is the breathy kh of Scottish “loch”. Two more are routinely mis-guessed even though they are not Latin shapes: Й is the y of “yes”, and Ё is “yo”, always stressed. Everything else is simply a new shape to learn: Б, Г, Д, Ж, З, И, Л, П, Ф, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ы, Э, Ю, Я, Ъ and Ь — most of which stand for sounds you already have in English. Fix those seven and Cyrillic stops being an obstacle: ресторан reads as “rih-stah-RAHN”, not as the “pektopah” a Latin-trained eye produces; вокзал reads as “vuhg-ZAHL”, not “bokzal”; and хлеб reads as “KHLYEP”, with a devoiced final consonant. Before that they are a constant source of confident nonsense.

Next, the spellings that never sound as they are written. The adjective and pronoun ending -ого/-его is [əvə] or [ɪvə]: красного [ˈkrasnəvə], моего [mɐjɪˈvo], нового [ˈnovəvə]. The word его and the adverb сегодня pronounce their г as [v]. бог ends in [x], not [k]. что is [ʂto] and кто is [xto]. конечно is [kɐˈnʲeʂnə] and скучно is [ˈskuʂnə]. солнце has no l in it at all. здравствуйте has no first v. счастливый and мужчина read their сч and жч as the long soft sound of щ, [ɕː]. And a written е is very often a disguised ё, which is not optional decoration but the difference between всё and все, between небо and нёбо. Keep this list short and learn it once; it covers almost every surprise Russian spelling has for a beginner.

Then the vocabulary that looks like English and is not. магазин is a shop, not a magazine — a magazine is журнал. кабинет is a study or an office, not a kitchen cabinet. аккуратный means neat and tidy, not accurate. марка is a postage stamp or a brand. диплом is the certificate you finish a degree with, not a diplomatic posting. аудитория is a lecture room or an audience, not an audit. фабрика is a factory, not a piece of fabric. факультет is a university department, претендент is a candidate or applicant, and интересный is a true friend but stressed three syllables from the end, [ɪnʲtʲɪˈrʲesnɨj]. Loanwords in Russian have usually been in the language long enough to shift meaning, so treat a familiar shape as a hint rather than an answer.

Finally, the structural trap, which is not phonetic at all but catches everyone. Russian has no articles — no equivalent of “a”, “an” or “the”, anywhere. Книга на столе. is “the book is on the table” and “a book is on the table”, with nothing in the sentence to choose between them; context decides. A bare singular can also stand for a whole class, so Волк — хищное животное. means both “the wolf is a predatory animal” and “wolves are predatory animals”. Plurality is marked, definiteness never is. When you translate into English you must add an article; when you translate from English you must delete it. There is no rule to learn here, only a habit to acquire, and it takes a few weeks of deliberate practice before dropping “the” stops feeling like leaving something out.

  • магазин shop /mɐɡɐˈzʲin/ muh-guh-ZEEN Not “magazine” — that is журнал. The г stays voiced here because a vowel follows it.
  • кабинет study; office /kɐbʲɪˈnʲet/ kuh-bih-NYET Not a kitchen cabinet. Both unstressed е sound like и; only the last is a real е.
  • аккуратный neat, tidy /əkʊˈratnɨj/ uh-koo-RAHT-niy Not “accurate”. Doubled к in the spelling, single к in the sound, and the stress sits on -ра-.
  • сегодня today /sʲɪˈvodʲnʲə/ sih-VOHD-nyuh Three traps in one common word: the г is [v], the first е sounds like и, and the final е is a bare schwa.
  • мужчина man /mʊˈɕːɪnə/ moo-SHCHIH-nuh жч is read as the long soft щ, [ɕː]. Nothing about the spelling suggests this; it simply has to be learnt.
  • бог god /ˈbox/ BOHKH The final г is pronounced [x] in this one word. Everywhere else a final г would devoice to [k], as in друг [ˈdruk].
  • Книга на столе. The book is on the table. / A book is on the table. /ˈknʲiɡə nɐ stɐˈlʲe/ kuh-NEE-guh nuh stuh-LYEH. One Russian sentence, two possible English translations. There is no article in Russian to choose between them — context and intonation do the work.

See also: The alphabet: 33 letters you can learn in an hour · The letter ё: always stressed, usually not printed · Consonant clusters: what natives actually say · Voiced and voiceless: devoicing and assimilation