Thread: Soft sign and Hard sign

Hi,

What is the difference when using the soft sign, and the hard sign... I can't seem to notice a difference when I listen to my tapes. Can someone give me some example with english word, between soft and hard.

Thank you in advance.

Being.. let's say self taught to be kind, I can't claim to be an expert on pronounciation, but I think the difference between American and British English of some words explains it:

Tuesday (toosday) American
Tuesday (tyewsday) British

believe the T in the American is hard, whereas in British it is soft. This is because we use "u" as a soft vowel, but Americans don't usually.

*invites Russians to criticise uneducated advice*

That's a good example, but of course you've got to have heard how Americans and English talk. How about "do" and "dew"? Of course, there are some terrible English-speakers like myself who pronounce "dew" as "do"...

I think the difference between 'do' and 'dew' and between 'tuesday' (US) and 'tuesday' (UK) is an 'y' sound, as in "yes". It doesn't really makes the preceding consonant soft, and I am afraid there are no words with such consonants in English.

Check this thread:
http://masterrussian.net/mforum/viewtopic.php?t=1851

I like this example:

soft sign (ь)is where you meld the y into the letter before, like in canyon. see?

hard sign (ъ) is where you separate the y from the letter infront, eg
объект
so you get ob-yekt instead of obyekt - there's a really small pause.

Make sure to read this thread as well

http://masterrussian.net/mforum/viewtopic.php?t=1429

Originally Posted by soulhaz

I like this example:

soft sign (ь)is where you meld the y into the letter before, like in canyon. see?

hard sign (ъ) is where you separate the y from the letter infront, eg
объект
so you get ob-yekt instead of obyekt - there's a really small pause.

В' ехал is another one that uses the "hard sign" (by the way, I am not sure which of my keyboard buttons is the one for the hard sign; that's why I couldn't type it in. if someone could tell me which button has the hard sign I'd be so grateful).

Svetlana, my advice is to type all the keys starting from Q left to right, and then down. You should see something like this:

йцукенгшщзхъ
фывапролджэ
ячсмитьбю.

and ё is in the top left corner of the keyboard.

This way you can type in Russian fairly easily without having keyboard stickers, you can just look at the above to check which row and which location each letter is.

въехал

I got it now! Thanks Waxwing! I'm much obliged....
By the way, do you name yourself after the bird species? Because there is a species of bird called waxwings....

Yes. But I am no ornithologist

Originally Posted by Pravit

That's a good example, but of course you've got to have heard how Americans and English talk. How about "do" and "dew"? Of course, there are some terrible English-speakers like myself who pronounce "dew" as "do"...

Likewise