Russian Language Blog
Menu
Search

Tag Archives: pronunciation

15 Funny English Phrases To Help You Learn Russian Expressions Posted by on Jul 9, 2020

Yellow Hearts

The Phonetic Association Method is a way to make vocabulary learning easier. The strategy is based on the selection of resembled sounds. With it, you can memorize up to 30-50 words per day. It is a life hack, when in a short time you need to learn a large number of words. Using this method…

Continue Reading

Word Stress Patterns in Russian Posted by on Jun 26, 2019

old Soviet Smena camera

Word stress (ударе́ние) is probably one of the most challenging things about the Russian language. Where the emphasis falls in a word is highly variable in Russian, and there is no single rule set, unlike in such languages as Spanish. To put things in perspective, this is also the case in English. If you speak…

Continue Reading

Spelling and Abbreviating Bulky Words in Russian Posted by on Mar 14, 2019

mason jar with Russian label

Thanks to their numerous prefixes, suffixes, and endings, Russian words can be pretty long. In addition, the “morphology principle of spelling” (морфологи́ческий при́нцип правописа́ния) dictates that we spell Russian word roots consistently, even if they are pronounced differently in related words. Think of го́род (city) vs. города́ (cities). If they were spelled phonetically, they would…

Continue Reading

Do Native Speakers Ever Struggle To Pronounce Russian Sounds? Posted by on Feb 12, 2018

boy with a microphone

Perhaps you struggle to pronounce certain sounds in Russian. Can’t roll your Rs? Have a hard time making soft consonant sounds? First, be sure to check out our pronunciation tips. Second, you’re not alone! There are native speakers who have articulation challenges and need to see a speech pathologist (логопед). Let us look at some…

Continue Reading

Does Russian Sound Different in European Russia and the Far East? Posted by on Oct 13, 2016

Map of Russia

Very often I hear people say that, Russia being so large, there must be distinct regional accents. A person from Moscow surely speaks differently than someone from Novosibirsk. However, in the case of Russia we find that the variation is not nearly as drastic as one would expect. As explained in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “The degree…

Continue Reading

Three Basic Russian Words You Shouldn’t Be Scared To Pronounce Posted by on Mar 14, 2016

This post is geared towards beginner students of Russian or those who have casually picked up a few words from their friends or from living in a Russian-speaking environment. Perhaps you’ve been in this situation, where you casually ask your Russian friend how to say “Hello” in Russian. After all, that should be easy. Hola and Hallo…

Continue Reading

Why Won’t Russians Answer Me In Russian? (Part I) Posted by on Apr 16, 2015

group of young people talking

So we’ve all probably been there. You spend a lot of time learning a language and finally get to a point where you can understand some spoken phrases and form coherent responses. You run into a native speaker and happily start talking Russian (or whatever language you’re learning) to them — only to get a blank…

Continue Reading

Older posts