Russian pronunciation rules

Russian grammar: Russian pronunciation

In Russian, as in many other languages, some letters change their pronunciation depending on their position in words and the letters that surround them. In this lesson, we will teach you the Russian pronunciation rules so you are able to read Russian words on your own.

Pronunciation of Russian vowels

• Overall, Russians tend to be lazy when it comes to pronunciation, so the Russian letter O, when unstressed, usually sounds close to A. For example:

  – по́мощь [pó-masch] – help
  – молоко́ [ma-la-kó] – milk

• The same “lazy pronunciation” happens to the letters Я, Е and Э. When unstressed and not in the beginning or the end of the word, the Russian letters Я, Е and Э tend to be pronounced close to the Russian sound И. For example:

  – е́хать [yé-hat’] – to go (by vehicle) [E stressed]
  – мечта́ [meech-tá] – dream [E unstressed]
  – я́щик [yá-scheek] – box [Я stressed]
  – тяжёлый [tee-zhó-lyî] – heavy [Я unstressed]
  – э́хо [é-ha] – echo [Э stressed]
  – аэродро́м [a-ee-ra-dróm] – airfield [Э unstressed]

• The letter Ё (don’t confuse it with E) is always stressed (accentuated) in the Russian words (you will never see an accent mark above it as it’s always assumed):

  – зелёный [zee-lyó-nyî] – green
  – жёлтый [zhól-tyî] – yellow

Pronunciation of the Russian consonants

There are a few cases when Russian consonants are pronounced not as they are written:

• Russian voiced consonants are pronounced as their voiceless counterparts when they appear at the very end of the word. Examples:

  – обе́д [a-byét] – dinner
  – муж [mush] – husband

• Voiced consonants become voiceless when they are followed by other voiceless consonants. Example:

  – ю́бка [yúp-ka] – skirt

• Voiceless consonants sound as their voiced counterparts when they are followed by the consonants Б, Г, Д, Ж, З. Example:

  – футбо́лка [fud-ból-ka] – t-shirt

• Endings -ОГО and -ЕГО become -ОВО and -ЕВО respectively (or -ОВА/ЕВА if unstressed). But be careful, this rules only applies to the endings and does not apply when -ОГО/-ЕГО is a part of the word’s stem. Examples:

  – ничего́ плохо́го [nee-chee-vó pla-hó-va] – nothing bad
  But:
  – мно́го [mnó-ga] – many, a lot (the stem is “мног”)

• If several consonants go together, some of them can be omitted to facilitate the pronunciation. Examples:

  – со́лнце [són-tse] – sun (omit Л)
  – чу́вство [chú-stva] – feeling (omit В)
  – здра́вствуйте [zdrást-vuî-tye] – hello (omit В)
  – аге́нтство [a-gyénst-va] – agency (omit first Т)

• -ТЬСЯ at the end of the word (the ending of reflexive verbs in the form of infinitive) is pronounced as -ЦА [tsa]. Same with the -ТСЯ (the ending of the verbs in the Present tense, 3d person). Examples:

  – улыба́ться [u-ly-bá-tsa] – to smile
  – улыба́eтся [u-ly-bá-ee-tsa] – (he/she) smiles

• Do you remember the 5 soft vowels that we learned in the first lesson? If any of them follows a consonant, you should soften that consonant to achieve more natural sound. For example:

  – нет [nyet] – no
  – приве́т [pree-vyét] – hi

Now, we have fully covered the Russian alphabet and pronunciation rules. It will take you some time to master your reading skills and pronunciation in Russian. Soon you will also encounter some words that don’t exactly follow the rules you’ve been learning so far – there are many exceptions in the Russian language, but don’t let this fact confuse or discourage you.

Remember this: the best way to master the Russian pronunciation is to try to mimic the native speech. So listen to the Russian speech as much as possible and try to repeat what you hear.

We hope you enjoy our lessons. Thank you for deciding to learn Russian with us! See you in the next lesson!

Update: we have also created the whole site to learn the Russian alphabet easy and free. Don’t hesitate to check it out!

The offline version of this lesson is available here

• 003. Soft sign (Ь) and hard sign (Ъ)
• 005. Accent marks in Russian words