Russian Classes: Practice one of the most difficult sounds in Russian!

Pavel Kuzmichev, Kirill Kukhmar/TASS; Syktyvkaretz, Ymblanter (CC BY-SA); Maria Vaschuk/Sputnik; Ruslan Sadykov/Yandex maps

Привет!

Get ready for what could be one of the most challenging lessons for many of you: we'll be practicing pronouncing the ‘Ы’ sound!

In order to pronounce it properly - try some of the tips bellow.
1. One of the most trusted ones is to pull the sound [u] and smile at the same time.

2. The ‘Ы’ sound actually lies close to the English sound [i]. It will be easier to practice it if you add the letter ‘Ш’ (sh) prior to it and pronounce them together: ‘ШИ’ [shi]. Note, that it shouldn’t be ‘ЩИ’ [shchi]! Remember not to move your lips and keep your tongue back.

3. You might be surprised, but many of you already know how to pronounce the sound, as long as you can say the word ‘we’ in English. ‘Ы’ is the vowel that comes out after ‘W’, before the word ends with the sound ‘ee’.

Check out more lessons in our Telegram channel using the tag #russianclasses!

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