Alot of help needed on pronunciation

Well, im an english person learning russian out of pure interest.

I have already learnt the alphabet as such but am finding alot of hard things to overcome.

Its quite hard to explain really what I find difficult.

When pronounced, Є and E sound the same to me? So if im trying to write out something thats been said to me for example how am I suppose to know which letter to use?

And then with the hard sign. Its used in the БЪЛГАРИЯ, giving it a kind of "bool" garia sound. (I know that from having a bulgarian friend.

But when applied to other words im really not sure on what kind of sound it produces?

Sorry if these questions seem really dumb, I have a load more as well but I will post them later =D

Dan.

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Originally Posted by docKery!

When pronounced, Є and E sound the same to me?

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There is no Є letter in Russian. This thing sounds "yevro" to me.

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And then with the hard sign. Its used in the БЪЛГАРИЯ, giving it a kind of "bool" garia sound. (I know that from having a bulgarian friend.

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Bulgaria is Болгария in Russian. It's pronounced [balgaria]. There is no any 'oo'-sound. I have no idea how the Ъ is pronounced in Bulgarian, but in Russian it's not pronounced at all. It's not a sound. It's a sign.

Oh woops I ment Э.

And as for the bulgaria thing. I thought both the languages used the same rules on pronunciation and things?

And yes I know its a sign I just sound for some reason. What does this sound do? Like I know the soft sign "softens" Н, Л and Т.

It needs real explaining for this kind of thing to get through to me <:

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Originally Posted by docKery!

And as for the bulgaria thing. I thought both the languages used the same rules on pronunciation and things?

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Oh.. And I thought English, German and Dutch used the same rules on pronunciation just because they all were the German languages. Or wait...

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What does this sound do?

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- обя - sounds ab'a (for example, in the word обязанность)
- объя - sounds abya (for example, in the word объятие)

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Like I know the soft sign "softens" Н, Л and Т.

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Why only those three??? :o :D

As I said. Im a *_*_*BEGINNER*_*_*.

If im gunna get that kind of sarcasm I wont bother I came for help. Thank you for the help provided though.


Not just those 3, they were just some examples...

Well, it's not a sarcasm, it's just a joke. I think it's obvious that different languages use different rules on pronunciation.

Well yeah, now you've said it is quite obvious. It just..didnt click in my head at the time sorry >_>

Добър ден! In Bulgarian the ъ is a vowel that sounds like the final a in words like sofa, софа - but what the heck are you doing looking at Bulgarian? Very different from Russian.

What textbook are you using? You may find in your early studies a statement to the effect that Russian has five vowels, and each vowel has two ways to write it. Except for one pair, the vowel pairs sound the same. The pairs are

а я
э е
о ё
у ю
and the hapless
ы и
Textbooks call them "hard" and "soft" vowels. There are various rules to determine which spelling variation you use. There are two letters that have no sound - ь and ъ.

Start with your textbook and read it through from start to finish, completing all the exercises, and by the time you complete year one, you will have all the basic questions answered. Especially if you can get a text with accompanying CD. Two well-known school tests are Начало and Голоса, published in the US.

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Originally Posted by chaika

In Bulgarian the ъ is a vowel that sounds like the final a in words like sofa, софа

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In the Russian word софа the final 'a' is stressed, so it's not like the Bulgarian 'ъ', I think.

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Originally Posted by docKery!

When pronounced, Є and E sound the same to me? So if im trying to write out something thats been said to me for example how am I suppose to know which letter to use?

And then with the hard sign. Its used in the БЪЛГАРИЯ, giving it a kind of "bool" garia sound. (I know that from having a bulgarian friend.

Dan.

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Perhaps if you are learning Russian you should be looking at Russian words and not Bulgarian words.

Anyway

Е = ye, like in yes, yellow (although when unstressed sounds more like Russian letter и (feet))
Э = еh like in entry, Estonia

eсть = yest'
эта = eta

Therefore they are not the same sound.

Ъ is the 'hard sign' (твёрдый знак). It's not really something you should be worrying about as a beginner because it's the least commonly used Russian letter. Basically it is used to separate prefixes from words beginning with vowels. It means that the preceeding consonant is pronounced hard and not soft.

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Originally Posted by TATY

It means that the proceeding consonant is pronounced hard and not soft.

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preceding?[/i]

Оля,
Боже мой! сорок лет думаю что с

[quote=chaika]Оля,
Боже мой! сорок лет думаю что с

Lol. I havent been looking at textbooks, or bulgarian words. I just know that word and thought thats how the hard sign is used. So sorry for my ignorance.
And thank you for all the help.