Thread: ы and и, plurals

I have a question concerning the sounds of ы as compared to и when at the end of plural words.

is there a difference in the sound when used at the end of a plural word?

i ask the question because there are no native russian speakers to ask. my russian teacher at university is ukrainian and teaches that the sounds are different. other ukrainian students today said that no, the sounds are the same.

thank you for your assistance.

Originally Posted by sun_rat

I have a question concerning the sounds of ы as compared to и when at the end of plural words.

is there a difference in the sound when used at the end of a plural word?

i ask the question because there are no native russian speakers to ask. my russian teacher at university is ukrainian and teaches that the sounds are different. other ukrainian students today said that no, the sounds are the same.

The difference in pronunciation between ы and и is always the same, no matter in the end of word or in any other part of word. Usually consonants before и are soften (palatalized) and before ы are not and that makes the difference automatically.

As for comparison between Russian and Ukrainian, I hear no difference in pronunciation of corresponding sounds but keep in mind that Ukrainian and Russian letters for these sounds are not the same as well as grammatical usage.

Russian и corresponds to Ukrainian i
and
Russian ы corresponds to Ukrainian и.

P.S. If you don't know how to make a plural form here are rules:
http://www.auburn.edu/~mitrege/russi...ials/0051.html

спасибо.

is there a difference in the sound when used at the end of a plural word?

Yes, the pronunciation of ы and и differs, but in syllables жи and ши there are no difference, and и sounds like ы in any part of the word.

Examples:
мыши [мышы]
миражи [миражы]
шина [шына]
жираф [жыраф]