Thread: Сегодня pronunciation

Yes, I'm listening to Pimsleur Russian and they are using this word. How do you say it? I swear the word is pronounced se-vod-nya. Like that's what I was hearing every time until I found a post on this forum that lists all the terms and saw how it was spelled. There is no way that's a g. None. Is this a particular case where things are said differently than they are written? Like if you offered me $50,000 to tell you what that consonant was, I would tell you it was v. I know sometimes things are spelled differently than they are pronounced. But with each speaker in the course it sounds like a v. Potentially a b, but definitely not a g. Like there is no way in the world they are saying it with a g sound. I want to make sure I'm saying it right.

If you have read on the Genitive case, you know that the 'г' in adjectives' genitive endings is pronounced as a 'в'. Сегодня is indeed pronounced "севодня"

The word сегодня is made up of: сего [old word for 'this'] дня ['day'], both words in the genitive, from
сей день

This doesn't occur often; but always be on the lookout for words within words.

The same сей is found in сейчас - this hour --- "now"

This is why I would recommend an approach to learning that incorporates as many different sources as possible, because where one source lacks another will excel.

Thanks

Originally Posted by xXHoax

If you have read on the Genitive case, you know that the 'г' in adjectives' genitive endings is pronounced as a 'в'. Сегодня is indeed pronounced "севодня"

The word сегодня is made up of: сего [old word for 'this'] дня ['day'], both words in the genitive, from
сей день

This doesn't occur often; but always be on the lookout for words within words.

The same сей is found in сейчас - this hour --- "now"

This is why I would recommend an approach to learning that incorporates as many different sources as possible, because where one source lacks another will excel.

Nice comment about the "-го" syllable as an ending! I would only add that the "-го" ending is typical not only for genitive case-forms of adjectives (masculine, singular), but for some pronouns, too (as you already showed with "сего", genitive case-form from the old Russian pronoun "сей", pronounced [си'вО]). Other examples of modern Russian pronouns in the genitive case: "чего" from "что", pronounced [чи'вО]; "кого" from "кто", pronounced [ка'вО]; “этого" from "этот", pronounced [‘Этавэ]; “того" from "тот", pronounced [та'вО]; as well as the ‘adjective-type’ pronouns (which otherwise may be substantivized , i.e. become nouns): "другого" from "другой", pronounced [друэ’гОвэ]; "каждого" [‘кАждавэ] from "каждый", and some others.