Thread: Held up on ы and й

й and ы


what is the "sound" difference, please. ie: pronunciation basic. и sounds like "ee", and ы sounds like "ih", but й sounds like "?" what does it sound like... helllllllp!"

й is called "и краткое", which literally means "short и". and that's exactly what it is. Its just a shorter и. And ы is kinda like the "i" in ill, or dim. I cant really explain how to do it. It took me like a year to get it down fully. The only thing i can say is just listen to it alot. Then you will get it.

You can listen to the alphabet here...maybe it will help.
http://www.learningrussian.com/alphabet.mp3

Й sounds just like the Y in 'boy'

In fact, we have this Russian word meaning 'battle, combat, fight, fighting':

бой

The Б probably isn't as breathy as it is in English, but otherwise it's pronounced pretty much the same.

And then there's the word Йогурт. How do you think you say that??? =:^)

like j
Do listen to the sounds, it's the only way of getting it right...
I've heard people pronouncing english from description, it wasn't to good!

Also try this program. Its called Alphabet letter-by-letter. It can help you master the alphabet. Download it here...

http://www.learningrussian.com/alphabetru.zip

If you wondering where i got it....
http://www.learningrussian.com/alphabet.htm

Oops. I got it from a rival site...hehe

Thanks Saibot, Zhenya, Chaika,

I will try all of those. Again. But... I may be back. Thank you for the additional download site too. I think it will be very helpful to listen in a variety of voices. Eventually, I hope the inflection comes out to my ears. Also, my cryillic does not even accent и like this. I'll keep at it. Very grumpy to be having a tough time with it.
Saibot's version of the letter being a shortened и is what I am going to stick to for understanding for now, as comparing the sound of i in dim and y in boy do not sound like the same thing to me at all.

Yogurt...Chaika

Originally Posted by saibot

http://www.learningrussian.com/alphabetru.zip

OOH Yeah, THAT GOOD.

Im glad it helped

Did everyone remember to load their clocks forward an hour?

Yeah I did. It was like all over the news and tv. I kept being reminded.

I couldn't forget it.

Originally Posted by Rosa Anna

Did everyone remember to load their clocks forward an hour?

Yeah, I hate that crap. Why can't we just stay on the time before this and stick to it? I liked it.

Because the pope died and we are changing the time in his honor

Where is all this news everyone keeps talking about? I missed it all.

We spring forward and fall back so the light of day makes sense?

это конспирация....

I saw your comment in Tech Support and Site Comments, Rosa Anna.

Most of the time Й is used to modify other vowels so they make a different sound. You never see it alone. For example

бо - bo
бой - boi

ко - ko
кой - koi

You will also sometimes see it in the beginning of words, in which case you should just pronounce it as a "y."

It is hard to pronounce this letter alone for the same reason it is hard to pronounce "y" alone - sure you can say "why", but that's the name of the letter, not it's sound.

Pravit,

Yes, I saw your reply there. Clarity hit me earlier today that the wording after the letter might actually translate something to the effect of short...but I didn't check it out. Then, after the two of you commented back I altavista'd it. is now I hope an overly well fed man in a red suit brings you many many baubles. For the extra instructional though...sigh. That's it--very much (insert russian equivalent here ) спасибо!!!!!

Saibot! это конспирация.....
LMAO... yes it is.
I was having trouble with the U's today too. у\ю\ы
I took your listening advice, with inspiration from the download visual/audio, and added the three of them (now that и and и kractyeo is out of the way) to the real video playlist by themselves. Over and over and over and finally...the difference presents itself.
Rambling...

Originally Posted by Rosa Anna

Pravit,

Yes, I saw your reply there. Clarity hit me earlier today that the wording after the letter might actually translate something to the effect of short...but I didn't check it out. Then, after the two of you commented back I altavista'd it. is now I hope an overly well fed man in a red suit brings you many many baubles. For the extra instructional though...sigh. That's it--very much (insert russian equivalent here ) спасибо!!!!!

Saibot! это конспирация.....
LMAO... yes it is.
I was having trouble with the U's today too. у\ю\ы
I took your listening advice, with inspiration from the download visual/audio, and added the three of them (now that и and и kractyeo is out of the way) to the real video playlist by themselves. Over and over and over and finally...the difference presents itself.
Rambling...

I see what you mean, but ы isn't a u.

the point is that ы goes with hard consonants while и goes with soft ones.
basicly. in hard consonants the back of the tongue goes down and in soft ones it goes up. as in pronouncing the vowel ee.
now if you try to pronounce a hard consonant and the vowel и together. you get ы. and you a bit like you've been hit in the belly.
for example try saing "бa" (hard, back of the tongue down) and then keep your mouth shaped the same and try to pronounce би what you get is бы.

Originally Posted by Rosa Anna

That's it--very much (insert russian equivalent here ) спасибо!!!!!

большой спасибо
-Fantom

ps- I see the й transliterated as j in some translators, but I've never seen my Russian friends use it... How is it transliterated most of the time? y? i?

Originally Posted by fantom605

Originally Posted by Rosa Anna

That's it--very much (insert russian equivalent here ) спасибо!!!!!

большой спасибо
-Fantom

ps- I see the й transliterated as j in some translators, but I've never seen my Russian friends use it... How is it transliterated most of the time? y? i?

спасибо большое

I like to transliterate it "i".