Resources for further reading:

• Learn Russian online the simple way
• The time it takes to learn Russian properly

Breaking Down Words into Syllables

Before we familiarize ourselves with these Russian pronunciation rules, let’s have a look at some important reading techniques. When you want to read an unfamiliar Russian word for the first time, the first thing to consider is how you can break it down so that you can read one little part at a time.

As you probably know, words can be broken down into syllables (small pronouncable parts of a word with only one vowel sound, e.g. sy-lla-bles).

Let’s see some examples of how words in Russian can be broken down into syllables:

If a word has only one vowel it means that you can’t break it down; it only has one syllable. Here are some examples below:

The Stress in Russian

Russian is known for its chaotic and irregular stress. It can fall on any syllable in a word as you may hear in the following examples.

Pronouncing Russian words with the correct stress is important for communication: getting the stress wrong will make your speech sound foreign and awkward. Sometimes in Russian the stress of a word can even shift depending on its role in the sentence so practice is essential.

There is no rule unfortunately that can help you to find where the stress falls in a word. For beginners, stressed vowels are often indicated with a stress mark; in authentic Russian texts, however, you won't see that, it is only for learning purposes! So whenever you encounter a new word and you are not sure how to pronounce it, it is always good to refer to a dictionary. Mostly though you will pick up stress automatically when communicating with native speakers. If you don't often get a chance to communicate with native speakers, make sure you work on getting stress placement correct with Rocket Record: practice makes perfect!

Stress and How It Changes Vowels

A Russian word, no matter how long it is, can only have one stressed syllable. The stressed syllable in a word is usually longer and is pronounced with more emphasis than the unstressed syllables. It is also important to know that unstressed vowels undergo reduction, i.e. they are pronounced quicker and less clearly.

Let's have a look at some examples.

The word мама (mama) "Mom" has two 'a'-s, but if you listen carefully, you’ll notice that they are not pronounced exactly the same. This happens because the stress falls only on one of them, the first one in this case. So the second 'a' sounds shorter.

Reduction is even more noticeable in vowels that are further away from the stressed syllable. Take, for example, the word карандаш (karandash) "pencil". The third 'a' is stressed, the second 'a' is reduced somewhat, and the first 'a' after 'к' is so reduced that it sounds closer to a 'u' sound similar to how the 'a' in the middle of the word "readable" sounds.

Pronunciation Rules You Should Know

Here are three tips that will help you to blast forward through the process of learning how to read. We call these "Pronunciation Rules". When you learn these simple rules you’ll be able to read any new word you come across correctly!

Tip #1: Pronunciation of 'o'

This is one of the important pronunciation rules: the letter 'o' in an unstressed position tends to be pronounced as 'a'.

Have a look at these examples:

"спасибо" "thank you" is pronounced спа-си-бa (spaseeba) because the stress falls on the 'и' with the unstressed 'o' sounding like 'a'.

Compare it with the word хорошо "good". This word is pronounced as ха-ра-шо (kharasho) because the stress is on the last 'o'.

Tip #2: Pronunciation of 'e'

The next most important pronunciation rule is that the letter 'e' in an unstressed position is pronounced closer to 'и'.

You can see some examples of this below:

Tip #3: Pronunciation of 'я'

The last pronunciation rule is similar to the second: the letter 'я' also can be pronounced closer to 'и' when it is unstressed. The exception to this is when the word ends in 'я'. If you see 'я' at the end of a word it is always pronounced as 'я', regardless of whether it is stressed or not.

Have a look at the examples below and listen to how the words are pronounced carefully: