Voiced and Voiceless Consonants

When two consonants are pronounced together, both must be either voiced or voiceless. In Russian the second letter of consonants’ pair always indicates the first letter. If the second letter is voiced, so the first is pronounced as voiced.
Еxamples (“ПРИМЕРЫ”):
1) Всё read as [фсё], [fsyo]. Why? Because the second letter “C” is voiceless, so the first letter “В” is pronounced voicelessly.
2) Юбка read as [юпка], [yupka]. The second letter of consonants’ pair is voiceless and the letter “б” is pronounced voicelessly.
3) Подпись read as [потпись], [potpis’].

The voiced letters (are shown in picture 1) “Б”,“В”,“Г”,“Д”,“Ж”,“З” are pronounced as voiceless at the end of the word.
For example, обед read as [обет], [abet] because the voiced letter “д” is at the end of a word.

REMEMBER!
The preposition “В” (in) is very often pronounced f. “В школе” is pronounced [фшколе], [f shkole].

About difficult Russian letters

When we pronounce letters "Ж", "Ч", "Ш", "Щ", their sounds aren’t in Greek language. Therefore it difficult pronounces correctly and clear.
But you have to remember in writing Russian we always use "ЖИ", "ШИ" (never "ЖЫ", "ШЫ"), "ЧА", "ЩA" (never "ЧЯ", "ЩЯ"), "ЧУ", "ЩУ" (never "ЧЮ", "ЩЮ"). In speaking say "ЖЫ", "ШЫ", "ЧЯ", "ЩЯ", "ЧЮ", "ЩЮ" (any way you can’t say it another).

Russian Alphabet

The Russian alphabet is based on the Cyrillic alphabet. There are 33 letters.
It can be divided into three different groups.

Listen the Russian alphabet:


«Ъ» hard sign makes the preceding letter hard
«Ь» soft sign makes the preceding letter soft

Consonants: б, в, г, д, ж, з, к, л, м, н, п, р, с, т, ф, х, ц, ч, ш, щ
Vowels: а, е, ё, и, о, у, ы, э, ю, я
Neither: й, ъ, ь