Thread: What is and what is not important in Russian pronunciation

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Vowels that palatalize previous consonants: ё, и, ю, е, я.
Their alter egos that DO NOT palatalize previous consonants: ы, у, э, а.
For example,
люк (hatch) - лук (onion)

There is another important thing to be said about this. The vowel after the soft "л" (л') in люк is not "у". When I hear foreigners speaking Russian I get the impression they are trying to say things like л'ук, and this is very difficult to do, and even if you succeed it won't come out right anyway. It's like trying to pronounce в'ыть instead of вить. The vowel in люк is almost as much different from "у" as "и" is different from "ы".

и-ы are two differenct vowels. However the vowel sound in 'люк' is indeed 'у' . It's not a German ü . When someone pronounce words like л'ук and sound awkward because of pause between 'л' and 'у' ... well, just don't make pause then.