Thread: The Letter "ye"?

Your question involves two different things:


1. Orthography.

When used after a consonant, letters я, е, ё, ю indicate the softness of the previous consonant:

тема — soft /t/ + /e/
тяга — soft /t/ + /a/
тётя — soft /t/ + /o/
тюль — soft /t/ + /u/

When used at the begining of a word or after a vowel, they get additional /y/ instead of missing consonant:

есть, заехать - /y/ + /e/
яблоко — /y/ + /a/
ёж, приём — /y/ + /o/
юла, краюха — /y/ + /u/

2. Vowel reduction.

Unstressed vowels undergo vowel reduction:
Unstressed /e/ merges with /i/: леса ("forests") and лиса ("fox") are pronounced in the same way with short /i/.
Unstressed /o/ and /a/ merge after hard consonant: валы ("bulwarks") and волы ("oxen"), both with /a/.
Unstressed /a/ merges with /i/ after soft consonant: пятёрка ("five") pronounced as if it were питёрка. Usually, this merge happens only in syllables before the stressed one (пятёрка, рядовой, тягать), and does not happen after it (тётя, котя, статуя, туя).
Unstressed /u/ also tends to merge with /i/ after soft consonant: тюбетейка is more like тибитейка, however some people pronounce /u/. This merge happens only in syllables before the stressed one.

Originally Posted by RedFox

When used after a consonant, letters я, е, ё, ю indicate the softness of the previous consonant:

тема — soft /t/ + /e/
тяга — soft /t/ + /a/

Many foreigners (perhaps English speakers especially) make the mistake of thinking that a "soft consonant" is the same thing as "a hard consonant followed by the /y/ sound". Thus, they incorrectly say:

тема — hard /t/ + /y/ + /e/ (as though it were т-йэма)
тяга — hard /t/ + /y/ + /a/ (as though it were т-йага)
(etc.)

However, there's no /y/ sound between the consonant and the soft vowel -- rather, the vowel's softness is "absorbed" (so to speak) into the consonant, and the value of the consonant itself changes.

Some English speakers also have trouble with the Spanish ñ, which is very close in pronunciation to the Russian "soft /n/," as in няня, "nanny." So instead of señora, they will say "sen-yora", dividing the single consonant sound /ñ/ into two sounds, /n/ + /y/.

Even though you're just beginning in Russian, this is an important point to understand right away -- a Russian "soft consonant," such as the т (both of them!) in тётя, "aunt," is ONE sound, not "a consonant plus /y/".