A SHORT GUIDE TO HOW TO PRONOUNCE RUSSIAN A AND O

(aka «Why does O sometimes sound as A?!»)

Read this short guide first to know how to read the cheat sheet below!

The pronunciation of the vowels (not only A and O but all vowels in the Russian alphabet) depends on the stress. The same vowel can give different
sounds depending on whether it´s stressed or unstressed. To know how to pronounce A and O in any given situation, you need to understand what
syllable it is in. The syllable can be either stressed or unstressed. There is only one stressed syllable in a word but there are may be several
unstressed syllables and they are different. That is important because it affects pronunciation! The unstressed syllable can be either pretonic or post-
tonic (“tonic” basically means “stressed”).

The pretonic syllable is the syllable that goes before the stressed syllable. There can be a 1st pretonic syllable (“ча” in “часы́”), 2nd pretonic
syllable (“ча” in “часовóй”) and so on. The post-tonic syllable is the syllable that goes after the stressed syllable. There can be a 1st post-tonic
syllable (“чал” in “нáчал”), 2nd post-tonic syllable (“кать” in “зáвтракать”) and so on.

If a vowel is stressed, it´s pronounced exactly like in the alphabet. If the vowel is unstressed, reduction happens. It means that the vowel is
pronounced not exactly like in the alphabet and sometimes even unrecognizably. It´s especially marked in spoken speech when you speak so fast that
you don´t have time to pronounce everything accurately.

There is a 1st and 2nd degree of reduction. The 1st degree of reduction happens when the unstressed vowel is right before the stressed syllable - for
example “за” in “завóд” is the 1st pre-tonic syllable). It´s called first degree because the sound of the vowel doesn´t change that much, in fact, it
sounds almost identical to the sound that the stressed vowel gives, just a little shorter. ([^] in the table below).

The 2nd degree of reduction happens when the vowel is far from the stressed syllable (two syllables before or after the stressed syllable - for
example “кать” in “зáвтракать” is the 2nd post-tonic syllable). In this position, the vowel sounds very differently, almost unrecognizably ([ъ] in the
table below).

To sum up, stressed A and O sound the way they are pronounced in the alphabet ([a] and [o)]. If unstressed A and O are at the beginning or end of
the word or right before the stressed syllable, the first degree of reduction happens and they´re pronounced as a short A, that in transcription is
marked as [^]. And in all other positions the 2nd degree reduction happens, and A and O don´t sound like A and O at all (see the notes below for
more explanation).

CLEAR RUSSIAN © KRISTINA MALIDOVSKAYA

 1. [а] is the sound that the letter A gives in the alphabet;
2. [o] is the sound that the letter O gives in the alphabet;
3. [ы] is the sound that the letter Ы gives in the alphabet;
4. [^] is a shorter [а] (first degree of reduction). It sounds almost identical to [а] but shorter (without stretching!) because it´s not stressed;
5. [ъ] is a very short sound that the letter A gives in unstressed syllables that are far from the stressed syllable (second degree of reduction). It
sounds very similar to the English schwa sound [ǝ] like the final sound in the English word “water”. In other words, it´s something in between
Russian A and Э;
6. [ь] is a very short reduced [и]. Normally it´s so short that it feels that there is no vowel at all. If you try to read “часовóй” as “ч_совóй” (as if
the vowel is not there), you´ll get the correct pronunciation.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE AUDIO

https://www.clearrussianpronunciation.com/wp- AFTER HARD CONSONANTS: AFTER SOFT CONSONANTS:
content/uploads/2017/10/Freebie-O-and-A-audio.mp3

Stressed in the Stressed at the Unstressed at Unstressed in Unstressed in Unstressed in 1st pretonic 2nd and 3rd Post-tonic
middle of the beginning of the beginning the 1st the 2nd and the post-tonic syllable pretonic syllable
POSITION word the word of the word pretonic 3rd pretonic syllable syllable
syllable syllable

[а] [а] [^] [^] [ъ] [ъ] [и] [ь] [ь]

ра́дость а́рка арбу́з заво́д парохо́д за́втрак часы́ часовóй на́чал
р[а]доcть [а]рка [^]рбуз з[^]вод п[ъ]роход завтр[ъ]к ч[и]сы ч[ь]совой нач[ь]л
after ч, щ
OR
А
[ы]
жакéт
ж[ы]кет
after ж, ш, ц

[о] [о] [^] [^] [ъ] [ъ]

O мо́ре о́сы окно́ мото́р хорошо́ го́род - - -
м[о]ре [о]сы [^]кно м[^]тор х[ъ]рошо гор[ъ]д

CLEAR RUSSIAN © KRISTINA MALIDOVSKAYA