Introduction to Russian: Lesson 27
Not all consonants in the Russian alphabet come in voiced-voiceless pairs. Some of them don't have pairs.
Do you remember the difference between vowel and consonant sounds? When you say a vowel sound, you open your mouth and the sound and air come out free, unblocked. You can sing all vowel sounds easily. To pronounce most consonants, you usually close your mouth or block the flow of air to create the noise. This is why most consonants can't be sung on their own, they can only be sung with vowel sounds. However, there is a special group of consonants that acts somewhat like a vowel - they glide, you can sing them just like vowels. Linguists, scientists who study languages, call these special sounds the sonorant consonants. In Russian, there are 5 sonorant consonants: й, л, м, н, and р. In English, there are more sonorant consonants. Can you guess what they are?

Щ is a unique letter in the Russian alphabet. We will learn more about it next week!