Pronunciation Guide For The Russian Words

Properly, Russian language should be written in Cyrillic letters, of course; Latin letters cannot replace them correctly. But the international transcription which is used here can help you to achieve a sufficiently true Russian pronunciation if you observe the few following rules:

a, e, i, o, u – the vowels are always pronounced the same way: "a" as in "bar", "e" as in "bed", "i" as in "bid", "o" as in "bore", "u" as in "blue".

b, d, f, k, m, n, p, t ... – most consonants are pronounced the same way as in English. The only exeptions are:

g – is always pronounced as in "go".

r – is rolled with the tip of your tongue.

s – is always voiceless, as in "son",
z – is always voiced, as in "zone".

sh – is voiceless, as in "mesh",
zh – is its voiced counterpart, sounding like the s in "measure".

kh – is a guttural sound, unknown in English. Mostly it is pronounced roughly, as in Scotch "loch"; only in combination with a following "e" oder "i", the guttural "kh" is pronounced smoothly, without friction.

y – has a double meaning in the international transcription, as it has in the English orthography: It is used to signify a vowel, as in "hymn", as well as a consonant, as in "you". To avoid misunderstandings in our transcription, we have introduced an additional distinctive mark here: The vowel is written «ý» with an accent, the consonant is written as a simple «y». That means:

ý – is always pronounced as the "dull i" in "bill";

y – is always pronounced as in "you", "yet", "yellow". If the "y" is standing behind a consonant, it softens this consonant - in the Russian word «nyet», for example, this sounds as if you try to speak an «n» and a «y» simultaneously, and you hear a "ny" – a "soft n" followed by a very slight "y".

' – has the same function – it softens the preceding consonant: «mat'» is pronounced with a "soft t" and a slight "y" behind, as "maty"; «tol'ko» as "tolyko; «gulyat'» as "gulyaty"...

a, e, i, o, u, ý – the underlined vowel signifies the stressed syllable of a word. In Russian, the stressed vowel is lengthened and strongly emphasized.