Consonants

Б б Бэ -- Beh Best

В в Вэ -- Veh Vent

Г г Гэ -- Geh Gift

Д д Дэ -- Deh Deep

Ж ж Жэ -- Zheh pleaSure

З з Зэ-- Zeh Zebra

Йй И York
краткое-- i
kratkoye
Кк King
Ка-- Kah
Лл Lion
Эл-- El
Мм Mend
Эм-- Em
Нн Next
Эн -- En
Пп Pet
Пэ-- Peh
Рр trilled R
Эрр -- Err
Сс Sink
Эс -- Es
Тт Tape
Тэ -- Teh
Фф Find
Эф -- Ef
Хх like
Ха -- Khah German
Цц iCH
Цэ -- Tseh
Чч booTS
Че -- Cheh
Шш CHair
Шэ --
Щщ Shah SHip

Ща -- SHift*
Shchah
 *Make a sh sound, but push your jaw slightly forward and tighten the
corners of your lips

In addition to the above consonants, there are

certain variations in the sound made for most consonants, and are
referred to most often as
"soft" consonants. Rather than add new letters to represent these
sounds, the Russians show them in one of two ways: either a softening
vowel, or, in
the absence of a vowel, a soft sign, used below. An explanation of how
to pronounce these individually are below. The signs have additional
uses, explained later.

Soft Consonants
Вь -Push your lower lip upwards so
the inside touches the lower front
portion of your front teeth
Дь

-Use the frontal portion of your

Зь tongue rather than just the tip to
make a sound like "dz"

Ль -Push your lower jaw forward a

little, and/or press the first
centimeter or so of your tongue
Нь just behind your front teeth

-Use the very tip of your tongue to

Сь make an l sound like that in French
or German

Ть -Press the front 1 centimeter of

your tongue against the top of your
mouth, just behind the front teeth;
sounds like onion

-Use the same method as above;

this is a devoiced version of the soft
З
 -Use the above method again and
make a t sound; this should sound a
bit like ц
There are other possible soft consonants, but they are not quite as
distinct as these

"Soft" Vowels
Е е Yeh YEs

Ёё Yoh YOdel

Ии E fEEt

Юю Yu YOUth

Яя Yah YAcht

"Hard" Vowels
Ээ Eh Enter

Оо Oh nOte

ы Еры*

Уу Ooh bOOt

Аа Ah swAn
*This is difficult to pronounce until you hear it; until then, pronounce it
like the i in "if."

Pronunciation
With Й
ай wIde

эй bAY

ой bOY

уй hOOEY
 The "Signs"

The soft sign, ь, as noted before, denotes a soft consonant when

there
is no vowel present to perform that function. However, when placed in
front of a soft vowel, it not only shows a soft consonant, indicates a
more strongly pronounced y (as in yoke) sound in the я, or ю or
whatever follows; you should feel you throat muscles moving vertically
when you pronounce it properly.

The hard sign, ъ, fulfills the same latter unction of the soft sign, but
also indicates that the preceding consonant is hard, despite the soft
vowel following it. This is, however, a rarely used letter (in fact, a
cellular phone I bought in Russia lacks only this letter, and it has both
the Latin
and Cyrillic scripts available) and is seen mostly in verb prefixes, as in
Съездить, Отъездить and the like.

Stress
Whenever you learn a new word, be sure to remember the
stress patterns; unlike Polish and some other Slavic languages,
syllable stress in Russian is free, unpredictable, and
sometimes mobile. Let me tell you know that the word бабушка
(grandmother) is
pronounced BAH-boo-shka, and NOT bah-BOO-shka as
most people would have it. (I remember when I was walking in St.
Petersburg with a foreign family who referred to an elderly woman in
this
fashion; she didn't know what the heck they were talking about!) For an
even more graphic example, the verb писАть (stressed on a) which
means "to write,"
can easily have it's meaning suddenly changed to пИсать, which means
"to piss," so be careful!

Vowel Reduction
While most new learners immediately assume that the
Russian alphabet is perfectly phonetic, more experienced students take
a more nuanced view; while not perfectly phonetic on its own, it comes
so much closer once you know the three main vowel reduction rules.

--The O rule: an unstressed o, before the point of stress, is

pronounced like an a, and after the point of stress, makes an "uh" sound

--The И Rule: an unstressed и before the point of stress is pronounced

like the i in if, whereas after the point of stress, и is pronounced
normally

--The E rule: at the beginning of a word, e is always pronounced as

"ye," regardless of stress. An unstressed e, unless preceded by a vowel
is pronounced much like Э, though any preceding consonant is still
softened.

Don't worry if you don't pick up these rules right away; by and large,
Russians will still understand you, and with time and practice, the
pronunciation
comes naturally. Moreover, many things depend on the dialects (in fact,
place where you speak)