Russian Language for Beginners: Alphabet and Pronunciation

1. About this class: are you planning a trip to Russia? Or maybe you have a Russian speaking friend or a family member? Or maybe you want to learn Russian simply because you love the language in the culture. Whatever your reasons are, I've designed the scores with you in mind so that you can get great results fast. Hi, my name is gotcha and welcome to Russian for beginners. I am a native Russian speaker. I have been teaching Russian for many years now, both the Children and two adults. And this is one of the classes in my Russian for beginners, Siri's where we will start from the very beginning, the alphabet and the pronunciation, and work our way through first words to more complicated sentences and grammatical structures. I will give you homework as your class project and provide feedback to you. Help you improve fast and effortlessly, and in the future classes, we will be tackling more difficult subjects. But let's start with the alphabet. So let's start learning 2. About the alphabet: The Russian alphabet is based on the Cyrillic alphabet, which was named after the ninth century Byzantine monk cereal. Over a period of centuries, many attempts were made to shorten circles original alphabet from its 43 letters. And today the Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters and all compared to 26 letters in the English alphabet. That my team a bit don't. But don't you worry, we'll get through them. This isn't to say, however, that English and Russian sounds are completely the same. They are very different. This is why I have created discourse to help you learn the sounds of the language before you dive deeper into the grammar and conversation. Before we proceeded with the alphabet. Let's go back to school and remember, with walls and constants are, you may wonder why you need this information well, knowing this will help you a lot when we will tackle the different pronunciations of different letters. So let's get started 3. Vowels and consonants: vowels are the sounds that are usually said with an open mouth without stopping the flow of air coming from the lens. The English letters Air A, E, I O and U. All of these are vowels, and when you pronounce them, you notice that your mouth is always open and not obstructed letters like B K L M R Constant. They're all pronounced with some sort of obstruction that gets in the way of the year coming out of your lungs. For example, when we pronounce them, we put our lips together, and that creates an obstruction to the flow of the year. 4. The Russian alphabet: Let's learn the alphabet. The first letter is it's pretty straightforward. It's very similar to the English father version of up, but when you place it in a non stressed position, it kind of loses its laziness and it becomes a more than a. So let's see the examples so you can see the difference. The 1st 1 is grottoes. Here is stressed. Grabs. Grab those Now let's hear the non stressed Atika teach ca So here you can definitely hear the difference between Dorados Atika. Another good example. Iss Kanawa. It has three letters in it and two of them are known, stressed while one in the middle is. So listen again, Kanawa Kanawa. So you can definitely hear a difference there. This trust one is longer and sounds more like an Ah, next letter is. But this is pretty straightforward as we pronounce boot similar to the way we pronounce book bunk. But thank you, bunk. But you keep. But we have to pay close attention that one book is placed at the end of the word. It transforms into its D voiced cousin grape at up. You can hear definitely a difference between bunk and grape bunk grape is the same letter when it's written down, but we pronounce it differently just because of the position off the letter in the word the next letter is. But vote isn't valve again, it's pretty straightforward. But here there is one thing that we need to remember. It might look like an English beat, but in Russian it's a book with, for example, let's listen to it in the word bug, one Baghlan again. When we place this continent in the end of the word, it transforms into his dearest cousin for this way, instead of we will have pull off Wolf. The next letter is good. Good again. Here we see that when the letter is not in the end of the world, it sounds good. Good grew. Zeke brought, grows Arabic, but when we place it at the end of the word, it transforms into its D voiced cousin. Eyes bilk. I'm no look. Eyes big A. No look, Let's listen to the difference again. Good got iceberg eyes. Brooke. The next letter is that the isn't Dad. At the end of the word, it transforms into its divorced cousin. Let's hear the examples dorm. The community here. It's not that the end of the word and it's pronounced is the doom, the commune. But when we place it at the very end, it's going to be, I bet bury it a B yet bury it. So let's hear the difference between the dorm. I've yet the next letter is yet it looks like the English E, but you pronounce it as yeah, as you would say yes or yesterday did it? You do. Then you have to be careful that it might transform into another sound in a non stressed syllable. That would be E of a beat or bird seed usually, huh? Usually you do you do just because the stress has been moved from year. In this case, it has more on e sound. You do. The next letter is your your is basically the same year. Just with you dot on top. We pronounce this as grand you only zero. You want me grand, your knee zero me Although you can hear in some words, your pronounces almost like an o Joel t call your drawl. The the next letter is Jeff. Is it? Is it you can pronounce? Similar to the word pleasure. Jetta sneers Lee Jetta sin usually but again, when the letter is placed at the end of the word, it becomes its D wished. Cousin Bogush Bug Gush the trash midrash. The next letter is zip zip. It's basically like a Z in a zoo. Zap back, Zap Park decomp Arazi, Dica Brazzi. Here I put Dick a browse it. It's a plural version off the word on purpose because I wanted to be in the middle of the word and not at the end, because again, as we've noticed, this is a tendency of continents and Russian what we place them. At the end of the word, they become de voiced and transforms interests of. In this case, we will have the single version of Dick obras it as Dick Obras. So listen to the difference. Dick Obras Jacob bras de cameras Dick obras so you can clearly see that Zuck transforms into some. The same is happening in the word lust, unless next is E is similar to beat He it took it talk igra eager. Now we have the next letter that comes after eat. It's E. He is also called the short version of it crab e. He has this little birdie thing going on at the top, and you pronounce it as you New York. Very similar. McCoy. Oy. Yeah, Ricky Yorkie. There are no words in Russian language that start with this letter. And in different books, you can find that this letter belongs to different groups. It might be a constant, or it might be a bowel, So I put both of them here. Next letter is, huh? Could could. It's similar as to what you would say. That key could quote court. Tractor, Tractor. The next letter is ill. Look. Oh, as in the lamp. Lisa. Lisa Ali Ali. The next letter is M as a month. Mama Mama Number number. The next letter is in. No, no, this letter looks very similar to the English H, but it is pronounced as no in this roke in the saddle Unknown us unlearn us. The next letter is Oh, oh, in stressed syllables is pronounced as o nasa rock. No, sir. Look. But when it isn't in the stress position, it becomes an up you can see in the word nasa rock. We have 30 inside the word nasa. Roque, only one of them sounds is not sorry, Brooke. I pronounced the 1st 2 as a because they're not stressed. The same thing happens in Opelika. All blocker. In the written word, we see that there are two hope. But I pronounce. Only one of them is both. Only the 1st 1 that is stressed. Orb Lika or blocker? The next continent is there, Boot isn't parent Skip Scrape Bianna be enough? The next letter is era isn't red. It was then. But what's that? Erica LICA. The next letter is sit. It looks like the sea in English. But we pronounce. It always has. It isn't so. Sienna Sienna! Sesno Cessna Next letter is there the that hasn t dealer Teela. August of Ghost. Next letter is Oh, it might look similar to why, but in Russian we pronounce it as Yeah, Utica old look. You look next letter is if foot as in flag de feu. Dill fill. Keep fear. Keep fear. The next letter is hot. Who pay attention? That this letter is no pronounces that we would have in English, for example. We would pronounce it more as Scottish in law. Russia? Yeah, sure. No personal. The next letter is set. It's a so sorry Stop set up in them Set up in them Next we have sheer Sure, sure. Chu as in cheer Chip Parker cheating Martha to Mozzie Que mas e in Russian Number four is chippy and it's very easy to remember this letter because it kind of looks like number four and it starts with the same letter. So number four shoot shit leading the next letter is shock shocker. Shell us. The next letter is sure she sure this would be more like a sheep pronunciation, for example. She look very soft. She look blush blush. The next letter is called a hard sign. It does not have any pronunciation, but it helps letters that are placed in front of it Sounds harder. For example, abuse, abuse. C'est c'est if I were to pronounce abuse. Next is the most dreaded letter in the Russian alphabet. Uh is pronounced with a very wide mouth. Imagine as if you are smiling and trying to say I eat and we're pronouncing it. You may Bela, Bela, this suit, you see? So try smiling oil. You pronounce it. The next letter again is something that we do not pronounce on its own. It's a soft sign that makes the proceeding sound sound softer. For example, wish this Dutch Dutch The next letter is it is in the end. And, sir sir, Method letter. The next letter is you. You. It's very similar to you Or you can Eula, Eula, yuca, yuca The next letter And the last one is Yeah, yeah is very simple as in Yahoo. If it displaced in not in the final syllable of the word and is on stressed. Then it becomes an E. Let's hear the examples. Yeah, America. Yeah, America here we can clearly hear Yeah, as a stressed vowel. And it's pronounced this Yeah, yeah, America Too much, too much Here yeah, is not at the end of the word and it's not stressed, so it transforms into too much e and the last one Buffalo Buffalo. You can hear that in this case, as it's not stressed, and it's placed in the final syllable of the word. It's transforms and kind of yeah, with a aspiration at the end. Rafa Buffalo! So this is it for the alphabet. And now we will move on to the next lesson where we will discuss the pronunciation 5. Let's pronounce the letters together: Now let's pronounce the alphabet together. It's best if you repeat after me This way you will learn to sounds best. Oh, uh, bet. Bet where? Let yeah get there there year. Yeah, Your you're was there Is that zip Zip e e e e car. Come, Bill. Bill, I m I am And And yeah, Or bear fair. Yeah. And this This there, there. Well, who if if so so, sir. So cheer sheer shot shop. Sure. Yeah. To your these knock. Do you really snuck Makis nook Meth keys? Look Yeah, Yeah, You You? Yeah, yeah. 6. Pronunciation patterns: For the most part, one Russian letter corresponds to one sound. For example, the letter cook has always pronounced is cooked, and the Letterman is always pronounced that this pattern is different from English, where one letter can be pronounced in different ways, depending on what word it is. For example, if you take car where sees pronounced, this cook and race were cease pronounced. This such drastic difference has never happened in Russian. But you may notice that emotion sounds slightly differ depending on the position in the word, for example, the Russian word where the first letter is sure and is pronounced that, like pleasure in the word gosh job is placed in the end, and it's de voiced and pronounced us so again, the difference. Juke garage sh so very often constants that are placed at the end of the word R D voiced Look Gosh, now let's look at the vowels. The most important rule here is not to shortened vowels like you would do in English. What I mean is, when you say Mom, the viol is very short, Mom. Instant purposefully stretch out the sounds to make them a little bit longer. Mama, Mama or better popular Can Noah come? Lord in Joke in Duke Cool did so. Corden, sir. Brilliant. Really? Yes. Sleep year Slim your ca younker Eula Eula Yeah. Good them? Yeah. Good. I hope you noticed that older vowels that I was pronouncing were mostly long. The only exception would be when they are known stressed And we have discussed that in the previous lesson we were going through the letters one by one Stress is an important concept in Russian. Putting a stress in the wrong place isn't just a former mistake it contender communication because the meaning of a word can change based on where the stress is. For example, the words Islamic means Castle, Zamalek, Zamalek and the word some work means lock Zam book. The same happens with Muka, which means a torment and Muka flower Muka. Unfortunately, there are no rules about stress. Stress is something very unpredictable in Russian and you would recognize it in the pattern when you learn more words and more expressions. So this is something that is going to happen on Lee with time, So don't worry about it now, because I will be using stress symbols for all the lessons to come. So as we have seen from the alphabet, some Russian letters change their behavior depending on whether they're in a stressed or in stressed syllable. Let's take a look at these words McNutt magnet. Here. The, uh is shorter when it's non stressed mag not my lock or Matlock core here. Or is pronounced this or Onley when it's in a stress position. The rest of or that we see in this words are pronounced this Matlock. Oh, my local. Yeah, but you're a book picture book. You know? Just that, Yeah, that is pleased. After poor Peter Book, it's pronounced almost like an e picture book. In fact, in Russian, we often shortened Peter as the name of the city. And here, even if it's stressed, Peter, we pronounce it as e because we're used to pronouncing picture book with the sound, even though that there is a year Yeah, yeah. Blame you. Yeah, bling him. So the first yacht in this word is stressed, and it's very strong. Yeah, yeah. Bologna. While the last one that is not stressed is kind of Ah, yeah, a very think Yeah, and it's aspirated at the end, like Russian vowels. Russian continents follow certain patterns, and rules of pronunciation in Russian continents are pronounced without aspiration. You should totally relax your tongue and lips before saying the but the or could in Russian , for example, What I mean by aspiration is try to pronounce Stop in English, stop and place your hand in front of your mouth. You will feel that there is a current of air coming out of your mouth. Stop. That's gold aspiration. Now let's try to pronounce Stop in Russian. Stop, stop, stop! I do not have aspirations at the end. Where, but is stop. Some continents are called voiced confidence, and some are de voiced voice. Continents would be book good and the worst would be could. So how does this happen in Russian, as we already noticed, that constants that are placed at the end of the word are often divorced, even though they're bushed. Bob up bob up. So in this case, But that is in the beginning and in the middle of the word is voiced, and when it's at the end of the word, it becomes a book, the divorced cousin off book Slow Slough. In this case, it transforms into for Slough because it's at the end of the word. Pamuk. Pamuk. Good here is print pronounced this cook again because it's at the end of the word project. Prided here we can clearly hear the difference between them and the debt did it. The is the 1st 1 is at the end because it's getting d voiced being placed at the end of the word you are. Yosh again transforms into Come us come us. This is a is transformed into so Russia speech often sounds like an endless full, constant clusters. Those are combinations of 23 or even four continents, and they're very common in Russian. For example, if we take this word is dressed, region is the rest with him, it means hello in Russian but in colloquial speech to make it shorter and to avoid the constant clusters, we often say stressed, dressed now a bit more about soft and hard signs. The soft sign doesn't have a sound. It's only mission in life is to make the proceeding constant soft. The sound is very important in Russian because it can change the meaning of the word. For example, without the soft sign the word much becomes month, which means obscene language. Might his mother much mother too much obscene language? Where is the soft sign makes the proceeding continent sound soft? The hard sign makes it hard. The good news is that it's really used now in contemporary Russian. You would see it more often in the 18th century. It's there to make the preceding sound sound harder. And, for example, we have a word, a beauty in yet a beating. Yet in this word, it intensifies the hardness of but a beating it. If I were to take away the heart signing off from this word, it would sound as I begin yet, and it would not make any sense. So we're finished with this lesson and let's go to the next one, where I will show you how to write Russian letters in handwriting. 7. Let's write the letters! Part 1: So in this lesson, we will practice rating Russian letters by hand. Let's start with the first letter. This is our printed version. So let's see. How do we write up in handwriting? You go from up, down then you go down again. Then you do a little loop here. Uh, let's do this again. Down, down again. Uh, the little, uh, this is the capital one. The small about is the same is in English, huh? The next letter is better. So the printed version is this Beth for book. But there were going down in a loop around like this. And though we had the top part here, so it's very similar to its printed version. Let's do it again. Down the tummy on the top for the small ban, it's likely different. And it's a letter that you will learn to remember when you practice handwriting. So we do the tummy like in, uh, we're all. And from here we go up and we make like, a little roof on top. So I'm doing the tummy, I go up and I make a roof. It's very similar to music. Note If you would get it so next letter is where? Well, there. Remember that this letter looks like English beat, but it's not. It's very so to write it in handwriting, it would be down and basically the English meat. Let's do it again down. And then the top and bottom generated the small letter. We would do the English be. We're but so now that we know three letters, let's try to connect some of them. Let's try to connect. Barba. Did you book? Uh, good. Uh, so this is how you would connect them? Why am touching the subject of connecting letters? Shoot. When we get to more complex letters, you will see that how the way you connect letters is a really big difference, and it makes a difference to award. It makes it understandable when you're reading handwriting. So up until now, it's not very complicated. Just remember that where is not to be Okay, so the next letter is give. Let's remember how it's written. So this is that word gear, the printed version. And this is how you rated in handwriting Beer. This is the capital version of again. It looks very similar to a T in English. Good. This is the big line. And this is the top. The small girl is like this. Give So let's say gaga. This is how g saying Russian Gah, gah, gah! There is a song that my daughter loves Goosey, goosey, gaga. So would you. Uh good. Good. As you see, the way I connect my letters is that I go from a all the way down. I finish my up and then I go up into Good. Good. Now let's do the next letter. It's Biff. So there is this house when I was learning letter there it when I was little. It's kind of like a house. She look at it with the roof and the bottom floor. So there we write the same ways we do in English with D there. That's the capital one. But you have to pay close attention. That there the small version, You write it this way. There it looks like the English G. But do you remember that this is a death that duh the next leather is Yeah. So, Yeah, it looks like a knee. Yeah, and we write it like this. So it's very simple. Yeah, And the small year is the same. Let's write food, Yida. So we do year duck and yet the the next one is your your We have it like this like year, but with two dots on top. So in the handwritten version, we do the same thing yet what? Two dots on top on the same here. Your the next letter is ripped. So shit, if you remember, it looks like a bug. Why do I said it looks like a buck because if you look at a dream, it resembles a bug or a beetle that does so it's really easy to remember that this shape is like a bug. And the sound is So how do we write this one in handwriting? So first we do a circle half circle like this. Then from here we do a loop and go all the way up. Next we go down straight, then we go up again and make it round it here and finish it off with another half circle. So this is this is a capital ra and the small jer You write the same way. So let's write Toad Gina, she, uh But now let's try to connect. Is there with a but let's place up in front of a judge, so you will see where we need to connect a letter from. So we start with, um and we always start our letter here at the top. So from out we go to the top and we do our ship. So you do not connected this way. This is not a connection with jam. And there are some other letters that we connect that way you always go to the top. So the next letter is zero. This is our Zim. And it's very simple because you write it the same way as you would year, which is the other way around. Mirror off? Yeah. Is that the small one? You would right zero this way with the little ball going under the line, uh, for example, or is that this is the way that I would connect visit? You can also connected this way when it's little bigs, Zach. And also pay attention. How? Here it goes up from the same way as we did with you. You do not connected this way. Um, not the connection. So in Russian, it's very important to pay attention to these details. The next letter is E E. The printed version is like this where we write E. It's like this Lincoln in English, and the small one is So let's read G. For example, just the sound. You see how I go up to connected, or you could also connected this way. Quite simple. Next one is E or Khadka the short version of So we do the same thing. This birdie on top, the next letter is cough. Come we right this way, huh? And then we add another letter here, for example, like that Come the small car. We right like this. This is the smoker, for example. Um let's connect and car. This is the way I would connect it. And let's connect car Lynda like that. The next letter is ill. Well, is pretty simple. So this is the printed version. And to make l we just go. And yeah, this is our l in ham rating. It's pretty simple when it's not attached to anything else. Because when you attach it, there is one thing you have to remember. So the small l is the same as the big one. But if we say Laulala, uh, this is a simple connection. Nothing particular but to attach the next l to my, uh I need to do this Le la la So this thing it's called the connector. So basically it connects the two letters and this allows us to see that this isn't No. If we would do this, we could not understand what this letter is. So every time did you attach Phil to another letter that's in front of it? Always use this little upstroke to attach it. I will show you why now? So the next letters M and it's basically the same as ill. But this is them with two parts going up. And this is the small. So now if we write Mama Ma, you see that here I go up again to show two separate up. And, um, if I write Emma Ma like this, we cannot understand what letter there is in between two. So every time Ma month always use the connector between the two letters. So if we were to have to letters like Eman l together, how would we separate them? How would we know where is one and where's the other? Let's pretend that we need to write. Uh oh. I m uh So in this case, we see that the first little upstroke separates are in bell, and then we have another one that separates helping them. We don't have this going on. We have separation of the letters, so it's pretty simple. Once you get used to it, you will not even think about it. You will just write it that way. So the next letter is in. Then we right this way. And and the small in the same in. No, that's right. Um, no, the next letter is for and it's basically the same. Oh! Oh, sorry. This is my English or so The difference between the English one is that the connector is at the bottom, for example. Ah, and we connect another letter here. Why the connectors at the bottom? Because many letters and Russian are connected at the bottom, like here, for example, You see, So don't do this. As I did here, the next letter is back back. So basically, it's very simple to the peace symbol from math, but And the small one is the English and play. Let's right, Papa. Huh? Huh? The next one is there it is very simple. You write it like P, But remember that you pronounce this letter air and the small one is yes. Let's write rock The doctor. The next is s very straightforward. This so by myself. So the next one is there. There is a bit trickier because we have three legs and one roof on top. There. Now I'll show you why it's written like that. The small one is This day is like the English them. And if you take a closer look than you see 123 legs. So the capital, when it has 123 legs. So yeah, death. The one with three Mr There. And remember that this is nothing. Them next is So this is the printed version and this is how we write it. Okay? The next letter is if so, if this is the printed version Onda, we write it like this If and then we connected from the bottom as usual and the small one is the same. We do this. The next letter is hot, huh? Looks like a necks. And when you write it, it goes like this, huh? So it's two semi circles together The small one does the same And notice how I start my lines at the top here. So when we connect it, for example, let's say, Ha ha. Just laughing. Ha ha. So notice how I go again from the bottom to the top where the letter begins. The next letter is, sir. So is this letter here and let's write it in handwriting. So I do my e the same was e here, but then I go up and do a little leg here. Twisty thing. So? So the little one is the same. So So So next we have Oh, sorry. So So next we have que? 8. Let's write the letters! Part 2: cheer. Cheers. Very simple as it goes. Like this chip and the small one looks like an AR Let's connect it with another letter. Uh, check. Then we have sure. Hum show eyes this and again, The small one goes like this. Sure. When we connected. Yeah. Pull. Uh oh. You see that? This one goes all the way up. If I were not putting it all the way up, then this would become Mama ASHA Jama. So every time that you write these letters, pay attention to how far you stretch your lines. So you have to be consistent in that. Otherwise your letters will resemble a different letter of the alphabet in handwriting. So then it's shot. Sure, we write the same way. Sure, sure. Just with another little leg here, like Kinsa. The next letter is to go to these. Knock the heart sign. So the heart sign is this. So if you remember, this is the printed version. And basically what we do is on on our with the tummy. The next letter is boots. So this is the printed version. And if you notice that these letters don't have a capital version because there are no words that begin with them so way have two parts. So the first part we go down, make a tummy. Then we go up to the next part and make the leg. And then we connected, for example. The next letter is so this is the printed version. And basically the hundreds of version is the same. Yeah. Emma. So this is a good word to remember, because if you see, I write my air first and then from the bottom, I go slightly up, create the connection, then muh against lightly upgrade the connection and start my again. And then I add are the next letter is you. She remembers this way. So how's your right? My You This is my you and the small. You is the same you, for example, from you, you become you become Let's read it again. You okay? So notice how I connect these letters. So the next and last letter is Yeah. Yeah. I was like this. We skipped one before. Sorry before Yeah, we have the soft sign. So this is the soft sign and we write it the same way we were at the heart sound just without the little thing you hear? This is the soft sign, for example. That's right. A gazelle God, zeal. This is the soft time. And let's return to Yeah, so yeah, is very simple. Go like this. So I started the bottom. Go into a circle, Go back down. The small one is the same way. Yeah, let's right. The Yama. Ah, hole. Yeah. Connection. Ma was your again. Yeah. You finish? Yeah. Then we go into the connection and we start Yemma. So these are all the letters that you need to know This Harold, letters of the Russian alphabet. And in your project section, you will find all the files to help you practice writing them so you can basically trace the letters. And, um, I would love to see your handwriting in your projects. And do let me know if you have any questions or if you Yes, any questions at all, I will be very happy to answer them. And in the next lesson, we're going to do our first dialogue. So let's go 9. New words: Now we will try and read a dialogue together. But before then, let's try to learn some new words and how to pronounce them slow. Va Smaller. You any Muggle? You any Mongol? Me yet? I mean it. Boca Book Vienna Vieirinha Malev Idiots Mill edits Orgy, Harassed, watching Could Russia 10. Dialogue: the dialogue. Now listen to the dialogue and try to catch the pronunciation of each word and try to read the dialogue yourself after we're done. Catcher. But you thought that this lower Jenny Margo I need two more shish ka kai appear Averbukh. Well, it need bet Vienna after Ibuka that I book Milledge it's are still closely are and bunk watching terrestrial now trying to read the dialogue yourself. If you are not very sure about this, listen to the dialogue again and try to pronounce it together with me. 11. Your Project: for your class project. I would like you to try and record you reading the dialogue as well as try to write the letters in handwriting and in the printed version. You can post your project in your project section, and I will definitely give you feedback or, if you have any questions, answered them. Thank you so much for watching this lesson, and I will be seeing you next, one that I will be posting very shortly by Bubka.