Letters and their main sounds

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Let's review these vowels. What sounds can they make? Click on the audio to hear the name of each letter and its main sound. Note that ы has only the lowercase form because there are no words in Russian beginning with this sound. There is also a letter here which we have not studied yet: ю. We will learn it next week.

 

While you are reviewing the letters, pay attention to the fact that they are given to you paired in two columns. The first column includes the vowels which usually don't change the pronunciation of the preceding consonant. The second column includes the palatalizing vowels - these vowels usually make the preceding consonant sound soft, as if it's blended with [y] sound: