Hard and soft consonants | Russian reading rules | Russian pronunciation
1:41 Most Russian consonant letters can be pronounced in two ways.
[б] – [б'],
[в] – [в'],
[г] – [г'],
[д] – [д'],
[з] – [з'],
[к] – [к'],
[л] – [л'],
[м] – [м'],
[н] – [н'],
[п] – [п'],
[р] – [р'],
[с] – [с'],
[т] – [т'],
[ф] – [ф'],
[х] – [х']
1:21 When you pronounce a soft sound:
#1 Firstly, you have to raise the middle of your tongue (NOT the top of the tongue) up toward the roof of the mouth.
#2 Secondly, stretch your lips a little bit
Whether a consonant is hard or soft, depends on what goes after it.
2:31 Let’s take a look at soft consonants
#1 If a consonant is followed by one of these vowels е, ё, ю, я, и it becomes soft.
#2 If a consonant is followed by a soft sing, it becomes soft as well.
3:27 So let's talk about hard sounds as well.
1 If it’s in the very end of a word, it remains hard.
#2 If a consonant is followed by another consonant, it remains hard as well.
#3 If a consonant is followed by one of these vowels а, о, у, э, ы it remains hard as well.
#4 If a consonant is followed by a hard sing it remains hard.
5:30 There are three Russian consonants that are always hard and are never soft, no matter what goes after them. They are: ж, ш, and ц.
5:44 That’s why if letters ж, ш, ц are followed by the letter и, the letter и is read as [ы], not as [и].
ЖИ — [жы]
ШИ — [шы]
ЦИ — [цы]
жить, маши́на, ци́фра (live, car, numeral).
6:04 And on the opposite, Russian letters Ч, Щ, Й are always soft.
Therefore, if you see syllables ЧА, ЩА you have to read them like ЧЯ, ЩЯ not like ЧА, ЩА because Ч, Щ are always soft in Russian.
ЧА — [ч’a]
ЩА — [щ’a]
ча́шка, тёща (cup, mother-in-law)
6:26 Or the syllables ЧУ, ЩУ you have to read them like ЧЮ, ЩЮ not like ЧУ, ЩУ because Ч, Щ are always soft in Russian.
ЧУ — [ч’у]
ЩУ — [щ’у]
чу́вство, щу́ка (feeling, pike).
I'm sure a little practice will help you easily distinguish between hard and soft consonants by ear.
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