Quote Originally Posted by Johanna
It's embarrasing but true.... don't know if I have REALLY, FULLY understood the role of "ь".... And "ъ" is definitely a mystery to me but it is so unusual that I haven't bothered about it.
I know exactly what you mean on this point. Letters like P seem pretty straightforward, you just say them like words like "Pew" if they have a ь afterwards; but I just cannot pronounce words like теперь - the R sound is too subtle (especially considering how different our Rs sound).

There doesn't seem to be any consistent phonetical rule relating to ь...