# Forum Learning Russian Language Pronunciation, Speech & Accent  Russian pronunciation compared with other languages

## basurero

Zdravstvujte!
I'd like to know how difficult you think Russian pronunciation is compared to other languages especially spanish, french for a native English speaker. 
I think it's is far far far harder than Spanish, the sounds are just so different and subtle... eg soft vs hard, ы and so on... 
Thanks

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## kwatts59

I studied Spanish, French, Japanese and Russian. 
Russian is the toughest language for pronounciation.
Japanese has the easiest pronunciation, but the toughest written language.
Spanish and French are very easy to pronounce.

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## TATY

> I studied Spanish, French, Japanese and Russian.  
> Japanese has the easiest, but the toughest written language.

 What a load of shite! 
Japanese has the easiest pronunciation. 
Funniest thing I read all day (I just woke up 5 minutes ago). 
Oh my god 
etc. 
You must be saying it wrong matey.

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## TATY

Ukrainian is generally easier to pronounce than Russian as the most common problems people have with Russian pronunciation don't apply or are easier to overcome. 
1. Palatisation of consonants occurs MUCH less
2. Ukrainian does have a sound similar to Ы but it is closer to English b*i*t than Ы is.
3. Ш and Щ are much easier to distinguish (Щ is ШЧ)
4. Vowel reduction doesn't really occur, so O is pronounced O wherever it is, stressed or unstressed.

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## laxxy

> Originally Posted by kwatts59  I studied Spanish, French, Japanese and Russian.  
> Japanese has the easiest, but the toughest written language.   What a load of @@@@! 
> Japanese has the easiest pronunciation. 
> Funniest thing I read all day (I just woke up 5 minutes ago). 
> Oh my god 
> etc. 
> You must be saying it wrong matey.

 why? I agree that it is pretty easy. Much easier than English and seems easier than Russian as well. English intonation alone is way harder than the pitch accent, and on the sounds there is simply no comparison, imo.

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## Volk

Unless people have aquknowledged everything written on this page...  http://pepper.idge.net/japanese/ 
...I don't believe the pronounciation and language as a whole can be considered easy.  
It depends on what language(s) people know already to say in their opinion what is easy and difficult in terms of pronounciation and writing when compared to Russian. 
This can't be considered a universal question.

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## scotcher

There is nothing particularly difficult about Japanese pronunciation. It's probably the only part of the language you can say that about. 
Tatu, you are way too much of an idiot to be able to carry off being a smartass.

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## kalinka_vinnie

I am not expert on Japanese, but the little Japanese I can speak is pretty esay to pronounce. Chinese on the other hand...   ::  But I do suspect that Kwatts has it a little easier speaking Japanese, since he is of Japanese decent... am I right, Kwatts?   ::

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## TATY

> There is nothing particularly difficult about Japanese pronunciation. It's probably the only part of the language you can say that about. 
> Tatu, you are way too much of an idiot to be able to carry off being a smartass.

 Yeh, but you're Scottish.

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## kwatts59

I feel Japanese is the easiest to pronounce for a native English speaker because all the sounds in the Japanese language are a subset of the English sounds (but NOT vice-versa). 
Whereas there are several sounds in the Russian language that are not in the English langauge.  For exmple "ы", "х", "ь", "ъ" and consonant clusters like "здр", "дв", "гд" and I am sure there are many more.

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## TATY

> I feel Japanese is the easiest to pronounce for a native English speaker because all the sounds in the Japanese language are a subset of the English sounds (but NOT vice-versa). 
> Whereas there are several sounds in the Russian language that are not in the English langauge.  For exmple "ы", "х", "ь", "ъ" and consonant clusters like "здр", "дв", "гд" and I am sure there are many more.

 Ъ and Ь are not sounds. 
Japanese R/L is not the same as English.

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## chaika

konnichiwa, taty, 
>Ъ and Ь are not sounds.  
That's why he's been having such a hard time pronouncing them! 
But really, your lame note about R/L does not get you off the hot seat. For native English speakers, Japanese is a piece of cake (partly because all the sounds are easy and no stuff like palatalization, and you can even omit the optional tones with no impediment to understanding).  I studied Japanese for one summer, so I'm a real expert. JK.  
sayonara.

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## BlackMage

> 3. Ш and Щ are much easier to distinguish (Щ is ШЧ)

 I produce a very weak and involuntary whistle when i say щ.  I learned it from my native Russian teacher so I think it's ok.

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## laxxy

> Unless people have aquknowledged everything written on this page...  http://pepper.idge.net/japanese/ 
> ...I don't believe the pronounciation and language as a whole can be considered easy.  
> It depends on what language(s) people know already to say in their opinion what is easy and difficult in terms of pronounciation and writing when compared to Russian. 
> This can't be considered a universal question.

 I've seen this one; it's an entertaining read but should be taken as what it is, which is a joke as the author himself admits.
what is "easy" is subjective, but it does seem that most people agree with me that Japanese pronunciation is not exactly too hard compared to other languages. 
as far as the other aspects go, I'd say that for me the grammar seems fairly easy (much easier than German, maybe a little harder than English). Can't really compare it to Russian since Russian is my native language but still the Russian grammar seems more complicated.  the writing system is rather unusual but not particularly insane, and it'd be a huge bonus for anyone who might wish to learn Chinese later.

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## basurero

You could write something like that about any language really... It's completely exaggerated and in reality aint half as hard as that makes it sound. I've only studied the basics of japanese but I know people who have become fluent without any major problems.

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## Боб Уайтман

> konnichiwa, taty, 
> But really, your lame note about R/L does not get you off the hot seat. For native English speakers, Japanese is a piece of cake (partly because all the sounds are easy and no stuff like palatalization, and you can even omit the optional tones with no impediment to understanding).  I studied Japanese for one summer, so I'm a real expert. JK.  
> sayonara.

 Konnichiwa! Nihongo no hatsuon ga eigo wo hanasu kata tame ni sonnani yasui to omoimasu ka? 
I should agree that the Japanese pronunciation is easy for English speakers under the condition if you don't master it well. The real Japanese phonetics is a bit different than you might think of it. 
The palatalization does exist in Japanese. O-kyaku-san (guest) IS pronounced with a soft K' (phonetically, [`ok'akusan]), there is no real [k-y-a] sound sequence. The same is true for MYA, MYO, HYO, BYA and other KAIYOON syllables (all of them have palatalized consonants).
Finally, the Japanese SHI (as in WATASHI) is not a real English SH sound, and the Japanese CHI and JI are also different from English ones. They are not sibillants too much, but they are palatal counterparts for Japanese S, T and D. 
The things are not so simple, though...

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## laxxy

> Originally Posted by chaika  konnichiwa, taty, 
> But really, your lame note about R/L does not get you off the hot seat. For native English speakers, Japanese is a piece of cake (partly because all the sounds are easy and no stuff like palatalization, and you can even omit the optional tones with no impediment to understanding).  I studied Japanese for one summer, so I'm a real expert. JK.  
> sayonara.   Konnichiwa! Nihongo no hatsuon ga eigo wo hanasu kata tame ni sonnani yasui to omoimasu ka? 
> I should agree that the Japanese pronunciation is easy for English speakers under the condition if you don't master it well. The real Japanese phonetics is a bit different than you might think of it. 
> The palatalization does exist in Japanese. O-kyaku-san (guest) IS pronounced with a soft K' (phonetically, [`ok'akusan]), there is no real [k-y-a] sound sequence. The same is true for MYA, MYO, HYO, BYA and other KAIYOON syllables (all of them have palatalized consonants).
> Finally, the Japanese SHI (as in WATASHI) is not a real English SH sound, and the Japanese CHI and JI are also different from English ones. They are not sibillants too much, but they are palatal counterparts for Japanese S, T and D. 
> The things are not so simple, though...

 "relatively easy, compared to other languages" does not mean "you can read it as if it were English" (or Russian for that matter), of course it's different. 
I would also not call ち/し/じ　"palatal counterparts" -- e.g. Russian soft/hard consonants are palatal counterparts to each other, these are not, they have an extra quality. Which is why the transliteration systems that ignore it are not used much, except for Russia maybe  :: .

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## snorkyller

Is it easy for you to pronounce "on", "in" and "an" sounds of french language?  These sounds don't exist in russian language, I think... 
I think russian language is cool because, from what I know, it seems to be written the same way as it is pronounced, which is really not always the case for french language. 
In french, there's so much complicated rules and exceptions that you must memorize because it's simply illogical, that if you can write a 3 pages letter without any error, you're really good!  There's even many university students who miss the french test.

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## laxxy

> Is it easy for you to pronounce "on", "in" and "an" sounds of french language?  These sounds don't exist in russian language, I think... 
> I think russian language is cool because, from what I know, it seems to be written the same way as it is pronounced, which is really not always the case for french language. 
> In french, there's so much complicated rules and exceptions that you must memorize because it's simply illogical, that if you can write a 3 pages letter without any error, you're really good!  There's even many university students who miss the french test.

 Actually, imho Russian is less phonetic than French, and things are definitely NOT written the way they are pronounced (and yes, spelling is a problem for Russian native speakers). 
French may look weird with 3-4 letters denoting one sound at times, but the rules seemed pretty consistent to me, so it is not really a problem. I'm not sure which language has more exceptions, but at the very least, the Russian stress is much less predictable.

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## wanja

IMHO, reading russian is very simple, but eritng not as simple.

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## snorkyller

I got a question for you... 
Is there a way to write in russian the sounds "in", "an", "on" and "u" of french language? 
Example: How do you write the name "Napol

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## TATY

[quote=snorkyller]I got a question for you... 
Is there a way to write in russian the sounds "in", "an", "on" and "u" of french language? 
Example: How do you write the name "Napol

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## Spiderkat

> ...
> I wonder how I should write my name in russian because it contains the sound "an"...

 If you tell us your name we could help you to find the right or best transliteration.

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## Боб Уайтман

> "relatively easy, compared to other languages" does not mean "you can read it as if it were English" (or Russian for that matter), of course it's different. 
> I would also not call ち/し/じ　"palatal counterparts" -- e.g. Russian soft/hard consonants are palatal counterparts to each other, these are not, they have an extra quality. Which is why the transliteration systems that ignore it are not used much, except for Russia maybe .

 Yes, certainly you are right about the extra quality. The best Russian transliteration for し should be ЩИ, IMHO, but it's never used in the literature, probably because the Щ in foreign words looks too Russian. 
However, the Russian soft ТЬ are ДЬ are also not absolute "palatal counterparts" for Т and Д, and they do have an extra quality, too. They might be transcripted as [ts'] and [dz'] rather than plain [t'] and [d'], although native Russians do not usually feel it. 
I wouldn't deny the fact the palatalization is sometimes accompanied with additional sound changes, the matter is it exists both in Russian and Japanese although it behaves differently.

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## Боб Уайтман

[quote=TATY][quote=snorkyller]I got a question for you... 
Is there a way to write in russian the sounds "in", "an", "on" and "u" of french language? 
Example: How do you write the name "Napol

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## laxxy

> Originally Posted by laxxy  
> "relatively easy, compared to other languages" does not mean "you can read it as if it were English" (or Russian for that matter), of course it's different. 
> I would also not call ち/し/じ　"palatal counterparts" -- e.g. Russian soft/hard consonants are palatal counterparts to each other, these are not, they have an extra quality. Which is why the transliteration systems that ignore it are not used much, except for Russia maybe .   Yes, certainly you are right about the extra quality. The best Russian transliteration for し should be ЩИ, IMHO, but it's never used in the literature, probably because the Щ in foreign words looks too Russian. 
> However, the Russian soft ТЬ are ДЬ are also not absolute "palatal counterparts" for Т and Д, and they do have an extra quality, too. They might be transcripted as [ts'] and [dz'] rather than plain [t'] and [d'], although native Russians do not usually feel it. 
> I wouldn't deny the fact the palatalization is sometimes accompanied with additional sound changes, the matter is it exists both in Russian and Japanese although it behaves differently.

 I agree.

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## snorkyller

> Originally Posted by snorkyller  ...
> I wonder how I should write my name in russian because it contains the sound "an"...   If you tell us your name we could help you to find the right or best transliteration.

 My name is "Hugo Angers" 
"Angers" is a French word.  It refers to the city of Angers in France.  So the question is how it is written in your russian map!   :: 
"gers" is pronounced like "j

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## Rtyom

[quote=snorkyller] 

> Originally Posted by snorkyller  ...
> I wonder how I should write my name in russian because it contains the sound "an"...   If you tell us your name we could help you to find the right or best transliteration.

 My name is "Hugo Angers" 
"Angers" is a French word.  It refers to the city of Angers in France.  So the question is how it is written in your russian map!   :: 
"gers" is pronounced like "j

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## snorkyller

I forgot to say that the "H" of Hugo is not pronounced.  So it's as if it was simply "Ugo"

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## Spiderkat

[quote=snorkyller]My name is "Hugo Angers" 
"Angers" is a French word.  It refers to the city of Angers in France.  So the question is how it is written in your russian map!   :: 
"gers" is pronounced like "j

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## snorkyller

[quote=Spiderkat]Rtyom was close enough, Юго Анже would be the right transliteration.
There's no [i]

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## TATY

Гюго Анже. That's how they spell Hugo in Russian.

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## Spiderkat

[quote=snorkyller]Thank you! 
Tu viens aussi du Qu

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## snorkyller

> Гюго Анже. That's how they spell Hugo in Russian.

 But, the "Г" in front of "юго" is like a "g".  Does it means that you spell my name something like "Gyougo"?     ::     

> юго анже sounds like more of a direction to someplace or a location than someone's name.

   ::   Why are you saying that?  It's true that "анже" is a city but юго is name...

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## Spiderkat

> But, the "Г" in front of "юго" is like a "g".  Does it means that you spell my name something like "Gougo"?

 That's correct. It's just how they transliterate the letter _h_.   

> Why are you saying that?  It's true that "анже" is a city but юго is name...

 I know this city, I spent two years there. It's just that юго something makes me think of a direction, for example юго-восток or юго-юго-запад.  ::

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## Friendy

> Originally Posted by TATY  Гюго Анже. That's how they spell Hugo in Russian.   But, the "Г" in front of "юго" is like a "g".  Does it means that you spell my name something like "Gyougo"?

 Actually "Hugo" is written and pronounced "Гюго" mostly when referring to Victor Hugo - that's a historical thing. In case of your name you can quite safely use "Юго" - I definitely would if I were you.

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## snorkyller

> It's just that юго something makes me think of a direction, for example юго-восток or юго-юго-запад.

 Oh!  I just understand... I didn't know that  ЮГ = south and ЮГО-ВОСТОК = southeast. 
My name in russian seems to be a road sign (Гюго Анже)    ::  
What is funny is that english speaking people pronounce my name like "You go".  Maybe it's a sign  ::  My destiny might be to live in Angers.  I never went there... never went in France anyway. 
Thank you Friendy

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## pranki

> Originally Posted by snorkyller        Originally Posted by TATY  Гюго Анже. That's how they spell Hugo in Russian.   But, the "Г" in front of "юго" is like a "g".  Does it means that you spell my name something like "Gyougo"?        Actually "Hugo" is written and pronounced "Гюго" mostly when referring to Victor Hugo - that's a historical thing. In case of your name you can quite safely use "Юго" - I definitely would if I were you.

 Actually, often Hugo is pronounced and written as "Хьюго". The name of well-known Agent Smith from "The Matrix" and Elrond from LOTR Hugo Weaving is often written and pronounced as Хьюго Уивинг

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## TATY

> Originally Posted by Friendy        Originally Posted by snorkyller        Originally Posted by TATY  Гюго Анже. That's how they spell Hugo in Russian.   But, the "Г" in front of "юго" is like a "g".  Does it means that you spell my name something like "Gyougo"?        Actually "Hugo" is written and pronounced "Гюго" mostly when referring to Victor Hugo - that's a historical thing. In case of your name you can quite safely use "Юго" - I definitely would if I were you.   Actually, often Hugo is pronounced and written as "Хьюго". The name of well-known Agent Smith from "The Matrix" and Elrond from LOTR Hugo Weaving is often written and pronounced as Хьюго Уивинг

 But that still doesn't help our French friend.

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## Spiderkat

> But that still doesn't help our French friend.

 I think we helped our Quebecker friend since now he just has to choose which spelling he wants to be remembered as: a French writer, a guy from a movie or some kind of a cardinal point.  ::

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## basurero

Google says:  
Xьюго: 516,000
Гюго: 431,000 
As for Юго... well, Google doesn't know!

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## Friendy

> Actually, often Hugo is pronounced and written as "Хьюго". The name of well-known Agent Smith from "The Matrix" and Elrond from LOTR Hugo Weaving is often written and pronounced as Хьюго Уивинг

 Sure, but that's when the guys are English like in your examples, also "Хуго" if one is German.

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## Rtyom

I agree with everything on the page.

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## beninstreatham

At university I had a teacher who taught specifically pronunciation -  in his view good Russian pronunciation was very hard for French and Germans, not too difficult for English or Spanish, hardest of all for Poles, and easiest of all for Italians. 
Italian I can sort of see - the quality of the vowels seems similar. A German colleague had terrible problems, though his Russian in other ways were good - in Russia you could hear the German students coming a mile off! Polish I suppose the similarity of words might inhibit correct pronunciation.

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## snorkyller

I think what's important is that a russian would pronounce my name the same way as I do.   
For "Hu", it's simply a "u" french sound.  So, how do you write a "u" french sound?  
If it's Юго, just too bad if it's like a cardinal point...   
I'm not the only one with this problem: The russian president Vladimir Poutin has the same here: Poutin is pronounced exactly the same way as the more popular fast-food of Quebec (poutine), french-fries with barbecue sauce and pieces of cheese.  Everybody here are laughing about that.

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## TATY

> I think what's important is that a russian would pronounce my name the same way as I do.   
> For "Hu", it's simply a "u" french sound.  So, how do you write a "u" french sound?  
> If it's Юго, just too bad if it's like a cardinal point...   
> I'm not the only one with this problem: The russian president Vladimir Poutin has the same here: Poutin is pronounced exactly the same way as the more popular fast-food of Quebec (poutine), french-fries with barbecue sauce and pieces of cheese.  Everybody here are laughing about that.

 Юго - You-go
Уго - ou-go  <---- I think this is the closest you can get to the French.  
As for the Italians speaking Russian. I've heard them and the problem they have speak Russian with an Italian rhythm (that is first syllable stressed).  
Portuguese is known to have similar phonetics to Russian. In fact the way Portuguese people and Russians sound when they speak English is quite similar.  
But surely Ukrainians and Belarussians are the best at speaking Russian?

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## snorkyller

> Юго - You-go
> Уго - ou-go  <---- I think this is the closest you can get to the French.

 You're right...
So I would write it "Уго". 
Thank you

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## Боб Уайтман

> Originally Posted by TATY  Юго - You-go
> Уго - ou-go  <---- I think this is the closest you can get to the French.   You're right...
> So I would write it "Уго". 
> Thank you

 However, there are some common conventional principles of transliteration between any two languages. Unfortunately, those principles do not always follow pronunciation nuances, but anyway we just have to accept them as they are. 
So far, the rules of transliterating French into Russian dictate that French U is reproduced via Russian Ю, not У. Hence, *Hugo -> Юго*. (Гюго is a historical tradition of writing Victor Hugo's name).

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## TATY

> Originally Posted by snorkyller        Originally Posted by TATY  Юго - You-go
> Уго - ou-go  <---- I think this is the closest you can get to the French.   You're right...
> So I would write it "Уго". 
> Thank you   However, there are some common conventional principles of transliteration between any two languages. Unfortunately, those principles do not always follow pronunciation nuances, but anyway we just have to accept them as they are. 
> So far, the rules of transliterating French into Russian dictate that French U is reproduced via Russian Ю, not У. Hence, *Hugo -> Юго*. (Гюго is a historical tradition of writing Victor Hugo's name).

 If you read the thread you will see that we've already discussed proper transliteration. But the guy wants to write his name how it sounds. And that is Уго.

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## Friendy

Well, if a Russian knows French more or less and sees "Юго" he might pronounce it rather close to French - that is without [й] sound at the beginning but it won't be [у] either (I might be confusing something but I think I heard it in some French films). If one sees "Уго" I think it would be more difficult to guess. Anyway, if it helps, there are _Russian_ last names for which it's not evident for _Russian native speakers_ how to stress them correctly - so the way words are written is not always sufficient for them to be pronounced correctly.

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