Russian Grammar.Russian is worth speaking.
|
1.2. The Vowels
Aa Ее Ёё Ии Оо Уу Ыы Ээ Юю Яя
In Russian, consonants are pronounced either hard or soft, depending on their articulation. Hard consonants are pronounced without palatalization, while soft consonants are pronounced with a raised middle tongue (palatalization). The pronunciation of a consonant is influenced by the vowel that follows it.
Vowel Influence on Consonants
There are ten vowels in Russian, divided into two groups:
When a consonant is followed by a hard-indicating vowel, it is pronounced hard. When followed by a soft-indicating vowel, it is pronounced soft.
In English, the difference between the words moot (hard) and mute (soft) illustrates this concept: the "u" in moot is hard, while the "u" in mute has a softening "y" sound preceding it.
Vowel Influence on Consonants
There are ten vowels in Russian, divided into two groups:
- Hard-indicating vowels: а, э, о, у, ы
- Soft-indicating vowels: я, е, ё, ю, и
When a consonant is followed by a hard-indicating vowel, it is pronounced hard. When followed by a soft-indicating vowel, it is pronounced soft.
In English, the difference between the words moot (hard) and mute (soft) illustrates this concept: the "u" in moot is hard, while the "u" in mute has a softening "y" sound preceding it.
|
Hard
moot |
Soft
mute |
When vowels change in noun declension and verb conjugation, soft-indicating vowels are replaced by other soft-indicating vowels, and hard-indicating vowels are replaced by other hard-indicating vowels. For example, the hard vowel а in the nominative case changes to the hard vowel у in the accusative case. Similarly, the soft vowel я changes to ю.
This consistent pattern simplifies the rules for vowel changes in Russian grammar.
This consistent pattern simplifies the rules for vowel changes in Russian grammar.
|
Russian Hard-indicating Vowels
Aa Ээ Оо Уу Ыы |
Russian Soft-indicating Vowels
Яя Ее Ёё Юю Ии |
Dictionaries give words. Grammar books give rules. Language360 adds context. |