Spelling and pronunciation

In an ideal world, words will be pronounced just as they are written. However, since we do not live in an ideal world, we see that the pronunciation of certain words does not always correspond to their written representation. This is true not only in Russian, but in numerous other languages as well, including English. For example: the ะพ in women is pronounced as i; the initial w is not pronounced in write, and the t in action is pronounced as sh.

Russian has a specific set of rules which govern those instances where spelling and pronunciation differ, and if you can master these rules, you will be well on your way to acquiring good pronunciation skills in Russian.

REMEMBER:

  1. Vowels carry stress and in Russian the stress can fall on any syllable in a word.

  2. Russian words have only one stress.

  3. Stress is not part of Russian orthography. However, many teaching materials mark stress as an aid in learning.

  4. The way a vowel is pronounced depends on whether it is stressed or not. This is a very important rule and we'll discuss it in a little more detail in the next section.