Week 1, Lesson 2, Thursday

Read any word, stress and all

Fourteen letters are left: the hushing sounds, the vowels that start with a y, two signs that make no sound, and one deep vowel. Then the stress mark, the small accent that tells you which syllable to lean on.

In this lessonabout 70 minutes

New words15

Focushushing sounds, y-vowels, two signs, the stress mark

1Recap 5 minutes

Three questions from Monday, before anything new.

2Goal 1 minute

I can read all 33 letters, and any word with a stress mark, aloud.

3The lesson 20 minutes

Hushing sounds

The hushing sounds are where Russian sounds most Russian. Four of them are close to sounds you know: sh, zh, ch and ts. Щ is the new one: a longer, softer sh.

Letter	Sound	Think of
Ж ж	[zh]	the s in pleasure
Ц ц	[ts]	the ts in cats
Ч ч	[ch]	Spanish chico
Ш ш	[sh]	shop
Щ щ	[shch]	a longer, softer sh

Ш is today's new shape; Л you met on Monday.

Vowels that start with a y, and Й

Four vowels start with a y sound: Я, Ю, Ё and Е, which you met as a false friend. Э is a plain e. И is the Spanish i, and Й is its short partner that follows a vowel, as in чай.

Letter	Sound	Think of
Э э	[e]	Spanish eso
Ю ю	[yu]	you
Я я	[ya]	yard
Ё ё	[yo]	yo-yo; always stressed
И и	[i]	Spanish sí
Й й	[y]	the y of Spanish hoy

Я starts with a y sound. Only the first syllable is stressed, so both о's relax.

Two silent signs and a deep vowel

Ъ and Ь make no sound of their own; they change the letters around them. Ы is the one truly new vowel: say i while pulling your tongue back.

Letter	Sound	What it does
Ъ ъ	no sound	keeps the consonant hard and apart from the next vowel
Ь ь	no sound	softens the consonant before it; shown as ' in brackets
Ы ы	[y]	a deep i with the tongue pulled back; shown as y in brackets

The stress mark

Every Russian word of two or more syllables has one stressed syllable. Learner books mark it with an accent, as in спаси́бо; books for adults leave it out. Say the marked vowel louder and longer, and let the other vowels relax. Every new word in this course carries the mark, so you never have to guess.

The mark tells you where to lean. The other vowels relax: the final о sounds like a.

Week 1 on one plate: all 33 Cyrillic letters in two lessons. Lesson 1, Monday: same as English А a, К k, М m, О o, Т t; false friends В v, Е ye, Н n, Р r, С s, У u, Х kh; new shapes with familiar sounds Б b, Г g, Д d, З z, Л l, П p, Ф f. Lesson 2, Thursday: hushing sounds Ж zh, Ц ts, Ч ch, Ш sh, Щ shch; vowels and Й: Э e, Ю yu, Я ya, Ё yo, И i, Й y; Ъ hard sign, Ь soft sign, Ы deep i; the stress mark in спасибо means say it louder and longer. — Week 1 on one plate. This lesson is band L2.

4Listen and say 5 minutes

Sound of the lesson: One strong syllable

Russian leans hard on the stressed syllable and lets the rest fade. An unstressed о sounds like a short a.

молоко́ [ma-la-KO] Hear it on Forvo (opens in a new tab)
спаси́бо [spa-SI-ba] Hear it on Forvo (opens in a new tab)

Listen to the textbook

The book's own recordings for this topic, free on the publisher's site. Listen once for the gist, then again with the book open.

Phonetics course (opens in a new tab)

5Phrases and words 5 minutes

Phrases to learn whole

Learn each one as a single unit, the way you would learn a word. They come back in your Daily 10.

Пожа́луйста.Please; you're welcome.
Извини́те.Excuse me.
Я не понима́ю.I don't understand.

Words to read aloud

Read each one aloud, then open it to check.

ёж

[yosh] hedgehog