Learn Russian Pronunciation

Welcome to episode 20 - the final exam. You should feel proud for having made it this far. It's a small course, but still...you put in the time and effort. After this exam you should treat yourself to something..I recommend Russian blini. Ever try them?

Welcome to episode 19 - our last new material before the final. Hopefully you've noticed that, as this course progressed, I tried to get you working on things that you're likely to say. Again, this is why I veered away from mindless pronunciation drills and tongue twisters.

Alright, this is episode 18 of Learn Russian Pronunciation. Today we're going to expand on what we did in the last episode by including people's names into the mix. Let's start with the name Igor. Listen to it in Russian:

Welcome to episode 17. Today we'll deal with a very common pronunciation problem: The names of places. Like I mentioned back in Episode 2, the first time I heard someone say 'Рим' I had no idea what they were talking about. I figured out it was a city, but the vowel was so different I didn't get it until

Today I'd like to return to the topic of voiced and devoiced consonants, looking at other letters this time, and more importantly, examining how it works within consonant pairs and clusters. We recall that in an unfamiliar word, it's often very hard to guess the last letter. Take the Russian word: дуб

Welcome to episode 15. Today we'll be learning the chorus of a song called Май. The chorus is only three lines long, so let's start with the first half of the first line. А за окном май That's four words: A...за...окном...май

Welcome to episode 14. Today we'll be covering our last 'tricky letter'. The short E. Й This one isn't so hard to pronounce as it is to read. For the most part, the best way to think of it is like the 'y' in boy...but very short and sharp. Listen and repeat as our speakers say yogurt

Welcome to episode 13. Today we'll be working with the letter Ж. In English I'd sound it out with the letters 'ZH'. Let's start by learning some common Russian words that have that sound, putting them—as always—in context. Ready?

Welcome to episode 12. Today we'll be working with the letter Ц. That's a "ts" sound...As in that's ...and Let's...So, we'll start by learning some common Russian words that have that sound. Let's hear them in context:

Welcome to episode 11. Today I'll be answering three of the most common questions I get about Russian pronunciation. The first question is about the Russian letter O. Here's a typical email...