Thread: help with й!

Originally Posted by Mashka Romaniuk

Privjet I just started learning Russian a few days ago; I was reading on a website about the Cyrillic alphabet-they said that the letter й modifies a vowel, I know it has sort of a "y" sound, but what effect does it have on a vowel next to it? Thanks for the help in advance

Й is basically the equivalent of the English sound Y (the semi-vowel sound):

ой = oy, like it toy
ай = ay, like the sound in high, bye, kayyak (sp?)
эй = hey, gay
etc.

йа = yam
йо = yonder