Consonants in in different words sound different. Somewhere it’s hard, and somewhere it’s soft. In this lesson we will learn to distinguish between soft and hard consonant sounds and to indicate the softness of consonant sounds in writing with the letters I, E, E, Yu, I and b. Let's find out which consonants form hard-soft pairs, and which are only hard or only soft.

Compare the first consonants. When pronouncing the sound in the word KIT, the middle part of the tongue rises to the palate, the passage through which air flows narrows, and a sound is obtained, which scientists conventionally call soft. And the opposite sound was called - solid.

Let's complete the task. You need to put the vegetables in two baskets. First, let's put those whose names contain some soft sounds, secondly, those in whose names all consonant sounds are hard. Beets, turnips, eggplant, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, onions, pumpkin, cucumber.

Let's check. In the first basket they put: beets(sound [v’]), turnip(sound [r’]), tomato(sound [m’]),cucumber(sound [r’]). Second: cabbage, pumpkin, eggplant, onion .

It is important to listen to the sounds of spoken words. If you say the word NOS otherwise - with a hard first sound, we get a completely different word - NOSE.

Let's listen and watch the movement of our tongue:

row - sound [p’] - rad - sound [p]

hatch - sound [l’] - bow - sound [l]

Rice. 3. Bow ( )

crumpled - sound [m’] - small - sound [m]

Sounds can be written (conventionally) using icons. Musical sounds are written in notes, and speech sounds are written in letters, but in special square brackets - in transcription. In order not to confuse hard and soft sounds when reading the transcription, scientists agreed to show the softness of the sound with an icon very similar to a comma, only they put it on top.

Most consonant sounds form pairs based on softness and hardness:

Some consonants are only hard or only soft. They do not form pairs in terms of hardness/softness:

Only hard consonants: [zh], [w], [ts]. Only soft consonants: [th’], [h’], [w’].

Let's complete the task: indicate the paired sound.

[z] - ? [and] - ? [R'] - ? [h’] - ? [With'] - ? [l] - ? Let’s check the correctness of the task: [z] - [z’]; [r’] - [r]; [s’] - [s]; [l] - [l’]. [zh], [h’] - unpaired sounds in terms of softness and hardness.

In writing, the hardness of consonant sounds is indicated by the vowels A, O, U, Y, E, and the softness of consonant sounds is indicated by the vowels E, Yo, I, Yu, Ya.

There are words with soft consonant sounds at the end of words or in the middle of words before other consonant sounds. Listen to the words: salt, horse, notebook, coat, ring, letter. Then a soft sign will come to the rescue. Even his name suggests - a sign soft, for soft consonants.

Let's make a reminder of how to act when writing words:

I hear a hard consonant sound - after it I write the letters in place of the vowel sound: A, O, U, Y, E.

I hear a soft consonant sound before a vowel sound - I indicate its softness with vowels: E, Yo, I, Yu, Ya.

I hear a soft sound at the end of a word or before a consonant sound - I show softness b.

Rice. 5. Hard and soft consonants ()

So, today we learned that consonant sounds can be soft and hard, and the softness of consonant sounds in writing in Russian is indicated by the letters i, e, e, yu, i and ь.

1. Andrianova T.M., Ilyukhina V.A. Russian language 1. M.: Astrel, 2011. ().
2. Buneev R.N., Buneeva E.V., Pronina O.V. Russian language 1. M.: Ballas. ()
3. Agarkova N.G., Agarkov Yu.A. Textbook for teaching literacy and reading: ABC. Academic book/textbook.

Additional web resources

1. Hypermarket of knowledge ()
2. Russian language: short theoretical course. ()
3. Logosauria: site for children's computer games. ()

Make it at home

1. Andrianova T.M., Ilyukhina V.A. Russian language 1. M.: Astrel, 2011. Pp. 35, ex. 6, Page 36, ex. 3.
2. Count how many soft consonants are in a word train? (The word electric train has 3 soft consonant sounds ([l’], [r’], [h’]).
3. Using the knowledge gained in the lesson, make up puzzles or charades with words where the softness and hardness of a sound changes the meaning.

Sound is the smallest unit of language pronounced with the help of the organs of the speech apparatus. Scientists have discovered that at birth, the human ear perceives all the sounds it hears. All this time, his brain sorts out unnecessary information, and by 8-10 months a person is able to distinguish sounds that are exclusively native language, and all the nuances of pronunciation.

33 letters make up the Russian alphabet, 21 of them are consonants, but letters must be distinguished from sounds. A letter is a sign, a symbol that can be seen or written. The sound can only be heard and pronounced, and in writing it can be designated using transcription - [b], [c], [d]. They carry a certain semantic load, connecting with each other, form words.

36 consonant sounds: [b], [z], [v], [d], [g], [zh], [m], [n], [k], [l], [t], [p ], [t], [s], [sch], [f], [ts], [w], [x], [h], [b"], [z"], [v"], [ d"], [th"], [n"], [k"], [m"], [l"], [t"], [s"], [p"], [r"], [ f"], [g"], [x"].

Consonant sounds are divided into:

• soft and hard;

voiced and voiceless;

paired and unpaired.

Soft and hard consonants

The phonetics of the Russian language is significantly different from many other languages. It contains hard and soft consonants.

When pronouncing a soft sound, the tongue is pressed harder against the palate than when pronouncing a hard consonant sound, preventing the release of air. This is what distinguishes a hard and soft consonant sound from each other. In order to determine in writing whether a consonant sound is soft or hard, you should look at the letter immediately after the specific consonant.

Consonant sounds are classified as hard in the following cases:

• if letters a, o, u, e, s follow after them - [poppy], [rum], [hum], [juice], [bull];
• after them there is another consonant sound - [vors], [hail], [marriage];
• if the sound is at the end of the word - [darkness], [friend], [table].

The softness of sound is written as an apostrophe: mole - [mol’], chalk - [m’el], wicket - [kal’itka], pir - [p’ir].

It should be noted that the sounds [ш'], [й'], [ч'] are always soft, and hard consonants are only [ш], [тс], [ж].

A consonant sound will become soft if it is followed by “b” and vowels: i, e, yu, i, e. For example: gen - [g"en], flax - [l"on], disk - [d"ysk] , hatch - [l "uk", elm - [v "yaz", trill - [tr "el"].

Voiced and voiceless, paired and unpaired sounds

Based on their sonority, consonants are divided into voiced and voiceless. Voiced consonants can be sounds created with the participation of the voice: [v], [z], [zh], [b], [d], [y], [m], [d], [l], [r] , [n].

Examples: [bor], [ox], [shower], [call], [heat], [goal], [fishing], [pestilence], [nose], [genus], [swarm].

Examples: [kol], [floor], [volume], [sleep], [noise], [shch"uka], [choir], [king"], [ch"an].

Paired voiced and voiceless consonants include: [b] - [p], [zh] - [w], [g] - [x], [z] - [s]. [d] - [t], [v] - [f]. Examples: reality - dust, house - volume, year - code, vase - phase, itch - court, live - sew.

Sounds that do not form pairs: [h], [n], [ts], [x], [r], [m], [l].

Soft and hard consonants can also have a pair: [p] - [p"], [p] - [p"], [m] - [m"], [v] - [v"], [d] - [ d"], [f] - [f"], [k] - [k"], [z] - [z"], [b] - [b"], [g] - [g"], [ n] - [n"], [s] - [s"], [l] - [l"], [t] - [t"], [x] - [x"]. Examples: byl - bel, height - branch, city - cheetah, dacha - business, umbrella - zebra, skin - cedar, moon - summer, monster - place, finger - feather, ore - river, soda - sulfur, pillar - steppe, lantern - farm, mansions - hut.

Table for memorizing consonants

To clearly see and compare soft and hard consonants, the table below shows them in pairs.

Table. Consonants: hard and soft

Solid - before the letters A, O, U, Y, E Soft - before the letters I, E, E, Yu, I	Hard and soft consonants
	b	ball	b"	battle
	V	howl	V"	eyelid
	G	garage	G"	hero
	d	hole	d"	tar
	h	ash	z"	yawn
	To	godfather	To"	sneakers
	l	vine	l"	foliage
	m	March	m"	month
	n	leg	n"	tenderness
	P	spider	P"	song
	R	height	R"	rhubarb
	With	salt	With"	hay
	T	cloud	T"	patience
	f	phosphorus	f"	firm
	X	thinness	X"	chemistry
Unpaired	and	giraffe	h	miracle
	w	screen	sch	hazel
	ts	target	th	felt

Another table will help you remember consonant sounds.

Table. Consonants: voiced and voiceless

Doubles	Voiced	Deaf
	B	P
	IN	F
	G	TO
	D	T
	AND	Sh
	Z	WITH
Unpaired	L, M, N, R, J	X, C, Ch, Shch

Children's poems for better mastery of the material

There are exactly 33 letters in the Russian alphabet,

To find out how many consonants -

Subtract ten vowels

Signs - hard, soft -

It will immediately become clear:

The resulting number is exactly twenty-one.

Soft and hard consonants are very different,

But not dangerous at all.

If we pronounce it with noise, then they are deaf.

The consonant sounds proudly say:

They sound different.

Hard and soft

In fact, very light.

Remember one simple rule forever:

W, C, F - always hard,

But Ch, Shch, J are only soft,

Like a cat's paws.

And let’s soften others like this:

If we add a soft sign,

Then we get spruce, moth, salt,

What a cunning sign!

And if we add the vowels I, I, Yo, E, Yu,

We get a soft consonant.

Brother signs, soft, hard,

We don't pronounce

But to change the word,

Let's ask for their help.

The rider rides on a horse,

Con - we use it in the game.

Phonetics is a capricious lady, although interesting. It's no secret that all sounds in the Russian language are divided into consonants and vowels. The former, in turn, are divided into voiced and voiceless, soft and hard. This classification is based on the way we pronounce sounds and the characteristics of our articulatory apparatus. So how can you tell them all apart?

What exactly is the matter?

1st grade begins to study soft and hard consonant sounds at the very beginning of the Russian language course. But in order to distinguish some phonemes from others, you must first understand what the difference is between them and vowels.

Vowel sounds are pronounced only with the voice. You can sing them, stretch them out - this is exactly how teachers explain to children at school. When the air leaving the lungs passes through the trachea, larynx, and oral cavity, it does not encounter any obstacles. When we talk about consonants, to pronounce them you need to use your lips, teeth and tongue - they all participate in the process, so to speak.

Comparing consonants and vowels by their sound, we notice the following trend: when vowels, as mentioned above, are sounded only with the help of one voice, then the consonants still contain noise created by the interference that the air has to encounter when pronouncing them. This is their main difference. Unvoiced sounds are pronounced only with this very noise, while in voiced sounds a voice is also added to it. Compare, for example, the pronunciation of the words “grotto” and “mole” or “house” and “tom”. In both cases, the first letters are the letters of hard consonants, voiced and unvoiced, respectively.

“Let's go back to our sheep!”

Now that we already know a little about the differences in consonants, let's move on to our main topic.

The best way to learn is by example, right? And again let's turn to the comparison: let's say next pairs words:

Racket rack, bun bureau, mother - ball, vine - ice, tower - view.

There is some difference in the way we pronounce consonants. Is not it? It is determined by vowel sounds that come after consonants. The words are specially selected so that the sounds we need are in the same position in all examples. In this case, they show all their diversity. Say it again, slowly. Do you feel how the tongue, in those words where the consonants sound softer, does not rest against the palate, but seems to relax and become flat? This can be considered the main feature that our hard consonants have during articulation.

Theory

Well, now let's move on to a specific theory. Hard consonants - a table that will consist of two parts. The first thing you need to remember is that the hardness or softness of a sound is determined by its neighboring vowel. When after the letter there is a, o, y, s , then the sound it denotes will definitely be hard (mitten, stomp, lips, played), and if there are e, e, yu, i, and , the consonant will sound softer (blizzard, doggie, mint, Kyiv). Thus, we can say that there is no point in memorizing all hard consonants. Almost all of them are paired. This property was shown in the first row of words, where we learned to distinguish between hard and soft sounds. Therefore, everything depends on this very vowel.

Unpaired consonants

Another question is how to deal with unpaired consonants. There are very few of these in the Russian language: w, w, c . No matter how hard you try, you won't be able to say them softly. Even if after them those vowels that are usually used with soft consonants are written: ramrod - rustling - chic, creepy - liquid - tin, price - circus - king. These consonants are contrasted with unpaired h, sch, th , which will sound soft in all cases: chock - thicket - cleaning, cheeks - squint - crushed stone, yot - yogurt.

Break the system!

In this situation, you need to understand that the rule of following a vowel with them does not apply to unpaired hard consonant sounds. The table, which can be compiled for better assimilation of the material, in any case, will consist of two parts - paired, the equivalent of which can always be found by changing the vowel, and unpaired, living by their own rules.

Let's remember

Now let's move on to methods of studying and memorizing. 1st grade remembers hard consonants reluctantly - it’s too boring. But there is always a way to increase efficiency by getting the student interested unusual shape work even with such theoretical and unnecessary, at first glance, material. Various pictures, diagrams, drawings and games with word choice will come to our aid.

Let's make cards, perhaps. You will need two sheets of colored paper or colored cardboard. The main thing is that they are contrasting. We cut out identical clouds, balls, figures - whatever comes to your mind. Then we connect the two figures with glue so that these very contrasting sides are on the outside. And then, with the participation of your little assistant, on one side we write vowels that are friendly with soft consonants, and on the other - with hard consonants. In order not to forget anything at all, you can also place unpaired and paired ones next to each other, respectively. When everything is at hand, it is much easier.

Next, we draw something that can help create an association - a brick on cardboard with hard sounds written on it, and a feather with soft phonemes. Or something else like that. Having before my eyes specific example, the student will probably learn the information better. Later, for reinforcement, you can ask your student to distinguish between hard and soft sounds in written words. different colors- red and blue, for example, so that you can easily check his homework.

Material at hand

To prepare the signs mentioned above, you still need to have some kind of material. Hard consonant sounds - a table that you can rely on to make sure you don’t get confused. For convenience, it contains paired and unpaired sounds in terms of hardness and softness. By the way, if we want to indicate the softness of a sound, in phonetic transcription, for example, an apostrophe is placed after it.

In this table, all phonemes at the top are hard. Below are their soft counterparts. True, we have three cases when the sound does not have a pair. This means it is never soft.

Let's remember further

Shall we continue to practice? Let's give more examples of words where the same consonant sound appears in a hard or soft position. One more nuance. In addition to those very vowels that influence a consonant, it can be softened or made hard by a soft and hard sign, respectively. Let's not forget about this in our next task.

Beaver - white, blizzard - goalkeeper, city - helium, entrance - clerk, giraffe, winter - teeth, whale cat, horse - lemonade, zhmenya - sea, Neptune - rhinoceros, steamboat - break, decision-novel, owl - family, cake - theme, film-photography, halva - diagram, chicken, hat.

Determine the words from the presented pair that demonstrate soft or hard consonants. As you can see, the letters used to designate them are still the same. Please note that in some words, hardness and softness are influenced not only by vowels, but also by consonants that stand next to our sound. In addition, you can also ask your child to come up with examples for unpaired consonants, so that he can see for himself that they are only hard. Yet own experience a far clearer confirmation than any memorized theory.

One more game

To study the topic of soft and hard consonants, you can offer the student another game like this. It's very simple. In front of him is a series of words, from which only hard consonants need to be written down. And then, inserting vowels into them, come up with some word. For example, there are a number of words: pickles - footman - knives. We write out the consonants: s, l, n, add vowels. And the first thing that comes to mind is the short but capacious word “elephant”. Shall we continue?

1. Edit - will - crowbar(signed out pr, v, l ).
2. Tomato - role - swamp(signed out t, r, t ).
3. Bittern - dormouse - hay(signed out in, with, n ).

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to remind you that under no circumstances should you say “hard consonants.” Only sounds are like that. And their designations are absolutely the same as in the case of soft ones (this was clear from the table above). Now that you have all the material in your hands, all that remains is to practice. You can find a huge amount on the Internet various games and exercises to determine the type of consonants. And, of course, you can re-read the material on the topic “Hard consonant sounds” several more times - the table presented in the article will help systematize all our knowledge. It will be much easier to repeat with her.

Don’t forget, for every doubles and unpaired sound Give new examples each time so that our student himself learns to compare the different sounds of consonant phonemes. It sometimes depends not only on the subsequent vowel or soft and hard sign, but also on neighboring consonants, which, depending on their hardness or softness, can also influence the original sound. It's not as complicated as it seems. More games and practice - and everything will definitely work out.

Hard and Soft Consonant Sounds is a set of twenty cards that are an excellent teaching material for teaching reading and developing a child's understanding of terms such as “soft” and “hard” sounds. These cards can be used with equal success for home grammar lessons and for educational classes in kindergartens and schools. early development. We offer you a color version of the cards. Green soft consonants are colored on them, hard consonants are colored blue. By printing them on a color printer and pre-cutting them, you can use them to demonstrate hard and soft sounds.

According to the hardness and softness of the sound, the consonants form fifteen pairs: [b] - [b'], [c] - [v'], [g] - [g'], [d] - [d'], [z] - [z'], [p] - [p'], [f] - [f'], [k] - [k'], [t] - [t'], [s] - [s'], [m] - [m'], [n] - [n'], [p] - [p'], [l] - [l'] and [x] - [x']. For example, the letter “R” in different words can be pronounced hard – “fish” and softly – “river”. To indicate softness, a special icon is used: [‘].

But there are sounds that have no pair for softness. For example: [y'], [h'], [sh'] are always soft, and [zh], [w], [ts] are always hard. All other nouns are soft if they are followed by the vowels i, yu, ё, e, i or ь, and hard if they are paired with other vowels and consonants.

On our website, parents and kindergarten teachers can download Hard and Soft Consonant Sounds cards for free. There are other sets of cards that will help you prepare your child for school yourself.

The speech of a person, especially a native speaker, must not only be correct, but also beautiful, emotional, and expressive. Voice, diction, and consistent spelling standards are important here.

The ability to correctly pronounce sounds consists of practical exercises (voice training: volume, timbre, flexibility, diction, etc.) and knowledge of in what cases a particular pronunciation of a sound is appropriate (orthoepic norms).

Before talking about the letters that represent soft consonant phonemes, you should remember the basic phonetic concepts and terms.

Phonetics: sounds and letters

Let's start with the fact that there are no soft consonants in Russian words. Since sound is what we hear and pronounce, it is elusive, it is an indivisible part of speech, which is obtained as a result of human articulation. And the letter is only graphic symbol, denoting a particular sound. We see them and write them.

There is no complete correspondence between them. The number of letters and sounds in one word may not match. The Russian alphabet consists of thirty-three letters, and speech has forty-seven sounds.

Accurate in the word through letters - transcription. The letters in this case are written in square brackets. When analyzing phonetically, each sound must be written down as a separate letter, emphasized and indicated as soft, if necessary ["], for example, milk - [malako], mole - [mol"] - in this case, the letter l with an apostrophe indicates a soft sound [l "].

Phonetics: vowels and consonants

When a stream of air flies out of the throat without encountering obstacles on its way, it turns out (singing). There are six of them in the Russian language. They are shock and unstressed.

If the air leaving the larynx does not pass freely, then a consonant sound is obtained. They are formed from noise or noise and voice. There are thirty-seven consonant phonemes in our Russian language.

• sonorous (the voice is much stronger than the noise);
• noisy - voiced and unvoiced.

Also, according to pronunciation, there are soft consonants (the letters that represent them are written with an apostrophe) and hard sounds. They differ in pronunciation - when speaking a soft consonant, a person raises the middle back of the tongue high to the palate.

Graphics: letters

So, letters are the designations of sounds in writing. The science that studies them is graphics. The alphabet is a graphic representation of the sounds of a language, arranged in a certain order. The ten letters of the Russian alphabet are vowel letters that represent vowel sounds. It also includes twenty-one consonants and two letters that do not represent sounds at all. Each letter in the alphabet has its own unique name. The modern alphabet was created in 1918 and officially approved in 1942. Now these graphic signs are used in more than fifty different languages peace.

Letter-sound composition

In the Russian language, the composition of speech sounds and letters differs due to the specifics of the letter - the letters of soft consonant sounds and hard ones are identical - ate [y "el", el [y "el"]; and six vowels are indicated in writing by ten letters. This is how it turns out that there are fourteen more sounds in speech than letters in the alphabet.

Hard consonants

Consonant phonemes form pairs: voiced - voiceless, soft - hard. But there are those that will always sound firm - these are w, sh, ts. Even in the words parachute, brochure and cognates w will remain solid. In some foreign words, they are pronounced differently.

Soft consonants

There is also a trio of sounds that are always soft, consonant letters denoting them - h, sch, th. There are no exceptions to these rules in Russian.

Paired consonants

Consonants are mostly paired, that is, each hard sound corresponds to its softer pronunciation. The letters denoting soft ones will be identical. In the transcription, the sign ["] will be added to them.

How to determine where soft consonants will appear? Letters do not immediately form words; they first form syllables. The softness or hardness of the pronunciation of a consonant depends on which sound follows it in the syllable.

Syllables

A syllable is a sound or several sounds that are pronounced in one breath, with one push of air.

Vowels are syllable-forming sounds, consonants are adjacent to them - the syllable is obtained: mo-lo-ko, let-ta-yu-sha-ya fish. The number of syllables in a word is equal to the number of vowels in it.

Open syllables end with vowel sounds: picture - car- Tina, lawful - right-dimensional.

If there is a consonant at the end of a syllable, it is closed syllable: car-ti-na, legitimate - right-in measured.

In the middle of a word there are often open syllables, and the consonants adjacent to them are transferred to the next syllable: po-ddat, di-ktor. The sounds that can close a syllable within a word are voiced, unpaired, hard consonants and soft. Letters for writing them - y, r, l, m, n. For example: kitty - ki-sony-ka.

There are divisions of words into syllables and parts for transfer, as well as into morphemes. This is the syllabic, or syllabic, principle of graphics. It also applies to consonants.

Hard and soft consonants: letters (syllabic principle)

It manifests itself in relation to consonants in that it determines the unit of reading and writing:

1. Like combining a consonant and the vowel that follows it.
2. Combining a consonant and a soft sign.
3. Grouping two consonants or a space at the end of a word.

So, in order to understand whether the sound defined in a word is soft or hard, you need to pay attention to what comes after it in the syllable.

If any consonant follows the one we are interested in, then the sound being identified is hard. For example: chatter - chatter, T- solid.

If the next one is a vowel, then you need to remember that before a, o, u, e, s stand For example: mother, fetters, vine.

And, e, yu, I, e- letters denoting a soft consonant sound. For example, a song is a song, p, n- soft, while With- solid.

In order to speak well and correctly read soft consonants and sounds, you need to develop your understanding and discrimination of speech sounds. Fine developed ability clearly identifying what sounds are in a word, even if you are hearing it for the first time, will allow you to better remember and understand the speech of others. And the main thing is to speak more beautifully and correctly yourself.

The syllabic principle is convenient because it allows you to reduce the number of letters in the alphabet. After all, in order to designate soft and hard consonant phonemes, it would be necessary to invent, create, and users would have to learn fifteen new graphic elements. This is exactly what is contained in our speech. In practice, it turned out to be enough to determine the vowels indicating which letters have soft consonants.

Letters representing soft consonants

The softness of sound is indicated by ["] only when writing a transcription - sound analysis of a word.

When reading or writing, there are two ways to represent soft consonants.

1. If a soft consonant ends a word or comes before another consonant, then it is designated “ь”. For example: blizzard, stolnik, etc. Important: when writing, the softness of a consonant is determined by “b” only if it appears in words with the same root both before a soft and before a hard consonant in different cases (len - flax). Most often, when two soft consonants are next to each other, after the first “b” they are not used in writing.
2. If a soft consonant is followed by a vowel, then it is determined by letters I, yu, i, yo, e. For example: drove, sat down, tulle, etc.

Even when applying the syllabic principle, problems arise with e before a consonant, they are so deep that they turn into orthoepy. Some scientists believe that a necessary condition for euphony is the prohibition of writing e after hard consonants, because this grapheme defines soft consonants and interferes with the correct pronunciation of hard ones. There is a suggestion to replace e to single digit uh. Before the introduction, unified spelling of syllables e-e in 1956, paired spelling of such words (adequate - adequate) was actively and legally practiced. But unification did not solve the main problem. Replacing e with uh after hard consonants, obviously, will also not be an ideal solution; new words are appearing more and more often in the Russian language, and in what case to write one or another letter remains controversial.

Orthoepy

Let's return to where we started - our speech - it is determined by orthoepy. On the one hand, these are developed norms for correct pronunciation, and on the other, this is a science that studies, justifies and establishes these norms.

Orthoepy serves the Russian language, blurring the lines between adverbs to make it easier for people to understand each other. So that, when communicating with each other, representatives different regions they thought about what they were saying, and not about how this or that word sounded from the interlocutor.

The foundation of the Russian language and, therefore, pronunciation is the Moscow dialect. It was in the capital of Russia that science began to develop, including orthoepy, so the norms require us to speak - to pronounce sounds like Muscovites.

Orthoepy gives one The right way pronunciations, rejecting all others, but at the same time sometimes allowing options that are considered correct.

Despite clear, understandable and simple rules, orthoepy notes many features, nuances and exceptions in how letters are pronounced, denoting a soft consonant sound and a hard one...

Orthoepy: soft and hard consonants

Which letters have soft consonants? Ch, sch, th- Under no circumstances should you pronounce hard sounds instead of soft sounds. But this rule is violated, falling under the influence of the Belarusian language and even Russian dialects and reprimands. Remember how in this Slavic group the word sounds more, For example.

L- this is a paired consonant sound, respectively, standing immediately before the consonant or at the end of the word it should sound firm. Before oh, a, y, uh, s too (tent, corner, skier), but in some words that came to us more often from foreign languages, whose speakers live mainly in Europe, and which are proper names, l pronounced almost softly (La Scala, La Rochelle, La Fleur).

The last consonants in the prefix before the hard sign, even if followed by letters denoting a soft consonant sound, are pronounced firmly (entrance, announcement). But for consonants With And h this rule does not have full force. Sounds With And h in this case they can be pronounced in two ways (congress - [s"]ezd - [s]ezd).

The rules of orthoepy state that the final consonant in a word cannot be softened, even if it merges with the next word starting with e (in this, to the equator, with emu). If such a consonant is softened in speech, this indicates that the person communicates through a colloquial style.

"b" also belongs to the list of "soft consonant letters" and the sounds before it should be pronounced softly, even the sounds m, b, p, c, f in words such as seven, eight, ice hole, shipyard, etc. Pronounce soft sounds firmly in front of " b" is unacceptable. Only in the words eight hundred and seven hundred m may not have a soft, but a hard sound.

Which letters represent soft consonants, you need to remember clearly - e, yu, yo, i, and.

So, in many foreign words before e the consonant sound is not softened. This often happens with labial m, f, c, b, p. P- Chopin, coupe; b- Bernard Show; V- Solveig; f- auto-da-fe; m- reputation, consommé.

Much more often than these consonants, firmly before e dental consonants sound r, n, z, s, d, t. R- Reichswehr, Roerich; n- pince-nez, tour; h- chimpanzee, Bizet; With- highway, Musset; d- dumping, masterpiece; T- pantheon, aesthetics.

Thus, the letters of soft consonants have a fairly definite composition, but fall under a number of exceptions.