Thread: Pronunciation of numbers

Hi!

I have heard a lot of videos on Youtube and read a lot of artlicles on pronunciation of number. Still, I'm not sure which one is correct because each of them has some differences. So I have written my own pronunciation of the numbers below. They are the only numbers I have problems with. Are the bolded parts correct?

восемь - vo-syem or vo-seem'?
девять – dye-vyat' or dye-veet'?
десять - dye-syat' or dye-seet'?

шестьдесят - shees-dee-syat
семьдесят - seem-dee-syat
восемьдесят - va-seem-dee-syat
девяносто - dee-vee-no-sta

It's all about where the stress lies in the word.

восемь - vo-syem' - The "е" is unstressed here and sound like a "и" a bit.
девять - dye-vyat' - The "я" is unstressed and sound like "и" or sometimes "е" a bit.
десять - dye-syat' - Same as above

шестьдесят - shyest'-dee-syat - The "е" in шесть is unstressed and sounds like "йи" somewhat.
семьдесят - syem'-dee-syat - The "я" in десят is unstressed and sounds like "е" a bit.
восемьдесят - vo-syem-dee-syat - Same as above
девяносто - dye-vye-no-sta - "е" and "я" sound the same because they're unstressed.

Note that these unstressed vowels don't sound like the letter they are. They're usually softened or hardened depending on where it lies in the word. When pronouncing something, think of the where the stress lies and focus on that first. When speaking with natives, you'll hear numerous variants of the sounds because there's no emphasis put on them and everyone sound a bit different.