{"id":12540,"date":"2020-06-22T09:19:29","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T09:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=12540"},"modified":"2020-06-22T09:19:29","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T09:19:29","slug":"%d0%bc%d1%8f%d0%b3%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9-%d0%b7%d0%bd%d0%b0%d0%ba-%d1%8c-soft-sign-or-the-charlie-chaplin-of-the-russian-alphabet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/%d0%bc%d1%8f%d0%b3%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9-%d0%b7%d0%bd%d0%b0%d0%ba-%d1%8c-soft-sign-or-the-charlie-chaplin-of-the-russian-alphabet\/","title":{"rendered":"\u041c\u044f\u0433\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0437\u043d\u0430\u043a \u201c\u042c\u201d (soft sign) or the Charlie Chaplin of the Russian alphabet"},"content":{"rendered":"

What can the 30th<\/sup> letter of the Russian alphabet have in common with the icon of the silent film industry? Let\u2019s find out together.<\/p>\n

Many beginner Russian learners find the soft sign (\u043c\u044f\u0301\u0433\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0437\u043d\u0430\u043a) to be one of the most intriguing letters of the Russian alphabet because it doesn’t have its own phonetic meaning but used to the soften the preceding consonant. Frankly, native Russian speakers are equally impressed with how much ruckus this \u201csilent\u201d letter can make. In this blog, I\u2019ll focus on \u043c\u044f\u0301\u0433\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0437\u043d\u0430\u043a, when it is used, and, hopefully, prove its similarity to \u0427\u0430\u0440\u043b\u0438 \u0427\u0430\u043f\u043b\u0438\u043d (Charlie Chaplin) along the way.<\/p>\n

Silence, please!<\/h2>\n
\"charlie_chaplin\"

Image by mohamed Hassan<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

My first point is simple: \u043c\u044f\u0433\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0437\u043d\u0430\u043a is silent and so were Charlie Chaplin\u2019s films. Nevertheless, both have made quite a bit of \u201cnoise\u201d in their respective fields. Charlie Chaplin is the icon we think of when it comes to the silent film industry and \u043c\u044f\u0433\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0437\u043d\u0430\u043a steals the spotlight among other letters of the Russian alphabet due to when and how it is used. Let\u2019s cover some basics here.<\/p>\n

\u041c\u044f\u0301\u0433\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0437\u043d\u0430\u043a (soft sign) can be inside or at the end of the word.<\/p>\n

When inside the word \u043c\u044f\u0301\u0433\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0437\u043d\u0430\u043a is placed either in the root or before the suffix but never after the prefix of the word. Its role is to separate the consonant and the palatalized vowels (\u0439\u043e\u0442\u0438\u0301\u0440\u043e\u0432\u0430\u043d\u043d\u044b\u0435 \u0433\u043b\u0430\u0301\u0441\u043d\u044b\u0435) such as \u0415, \u0401, \u042e, \u042f, \u0418.<\/p>\n

If you see these letters,\u00a0go ahead, and insert the \u042c right before them. For example:<\/p>\n

\u0421\u0435\u043c\u044c\u044f\u0301 (family)<\/p>\n

\u0412\u044c\u044e\u0301\u0433\u0430 (snowstorm)<\/p>\n

\u0411\u0443\u0440\u044c\u044f\u0301\u043d (tall weeds)<\/p>\n

\u041a\u0430\u0440\u044c\u0435\u0301\u0440\u0430 (career)<\/p>\n

\u041c\u044f\u0301\u0433\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0437\u043d\u0430\u043a is also used to soften the consonants at the end of the word, e.g. \u043a\u043e\u043d\u044c (horse), \u0448\u0438\u0442\u044c (to sew), \u0442\u0435\u043c\u044c (darkness).<\/p>\n

Generally, this rule does not apply when the word ends on consonants \u201c\u0447\u201d and \u201c\u0449\u201d, however there are a few exceptions to the rule.<\/p>\n

It is ok to use \u201c\u042c\u201d after \u0436, \u0447, \u0448, \u0449 only if:<\/p>\n