Thread: Natives, please pronounce "Бог"

Can any of you native speakers please show me the weird sounding Г in the word "Бог"? Cause I heard it sounds somewhat like a "kh" or something...

Is there any other word in which the Г sounds like that? Once I heard a guy say "мягкий знак" with that kind of sound, like "myakhkij", but I don't know if he was just being dumb or if it actually sounds like that :P

So natives, please, enlighten me!

Originally Posted by erika

Can any of you native speakers please show me the weird sounding Г in the word "Бог"? Cause I heard it sounds somewhat like a "kh" or something...

Is there any other word in which the Г sounds like that? Once I heard a guy say "мягкий знак" with that kind of sound, like "myakhkij", but I don't know if he was just being dumb or if it actually sounds like that :P

So natives, please, enlighten me!

Бог is pronounced Бох
Мягкий is pronounced Мяхкий

Originally Posted by TATY

Бог is pronounced Бох
Мягкий is pronounced Мяхкий

Yay, thanks for the quick response!

Weird then, I'd never guess Мягкий sounds like Мяхкий...
Apparently there's no rule to find out when a г sounds like х, right?

Originally Posted by erika

Originally Posted by TATY

Бог is pronounced Бох
Мягкий is pronounced Мяхкий

Yay, thanks for the quick response!

Weird then, I'd never guess Мягкий sounds like Мяхкий...
Apparently there's no rule to find out when a г sounds like х, right?

These are the only two they tell learners about. I don't think there are others, but maybe there are.

Г devoices to К at the end of words and before other devoiced consonants anyway:

шаг is pronounced шак

And К and Х are very close sounds.


I think when you decline Бог the Г goes back to a G
Like Бога.

Originally Posted by TATY

Г devoices to К at the end of words and before other devoiced consonants anyway:

шаг is pronounced шак

And К and Х are very close sounds.


I think when you decline Бог the Г goes back to a G
Like Бога.

I agree with TATY, that's what I learned as well.

Another general rule that I was told, was that Г devoices to Х before К

f.ex. легко - I was taught to pronounce леХко


.... but maybe there are exceptions...

I don't think there are an awful lot of words with the -гк- combination anyway, are there?

Бог is, by the way, the only Russian word where Г being as it is the last letter does not reduce to К.
If we pronounced "К" here, it would sound just as the word бок which means "side"

If declined, it becomes "g" again, as Taty has said. Бога, богам...

Some people do pronounce it with Г so it's also up to people the way they say it.

Dimitri couldn't resist saying it!

I was surprised Dmitri didn't say "Dmitri" instead of "Бог"

Dimitri said Б-г.

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

I was surprised Dmitri didn't say "Dmitri" instead of "Бог"

Me too