Lesson 30: Hard Sign (Ъ) vs Soft Sign (Ь) | Russian Alphabet Pronunciation | Russian Comprehensive
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- Опубліковано 1 чер 2024
- What is the role of Hard Sign (Ъ) and Soft Sign (Ь) in Russian?
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✓ What exactly are Hard Sign (Ъ) and Soft Sign (Ь) in Russian?
✓ How do they sound?
✓ When do you use them?
The bottom line is, they both serve as an apostrophe in Russian, only Ь indicates that the consonant is SOFT, and Ъ indicates that the consonant is HARD.
They can be used:
Ъ - between a consonant and vowel;
Ь - between a consonant and a vowel / between 2 consonants / at the end of a word after a consonant.
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Long time ago, in Russian, every word had to end with a vowel.
Sometimes it would be a very short sound, and there were two of them: Ъ and Ь.
Right, the Hard sign (Ъ) and the Soft sign (Ь) used to be short vowels. Back then, they were called “Ер” and “Ерь”.
Over time, those short vowels at the end of words got reduced, though still kept in spelling. On practice, the Hard sign (Ъ) indicated that the preceding consonant was hard, and the Soft sign (Ь) indicated that the preceding consonant was soft.
In the early 20th century, Ъ at the end of words or between two consonants was deemed excessive and was soon abolished.
Today, both the Hard sign (Ъ) and the Soft sign (Ь) are used to separate a consonant and a vowel (mostly Я, Ё, Е, Ю), only the Hard sign (Ъ) separates a Hard consonant and a vowel, and the Soft sign (Ь) separates a Soft consonant and a vowel. Though in fluent speech, syllables with Ъ and Ь (i.e. МЬЯ vs МЪЯ) do sound pretty similar. In some other languages, a similar function is given to an apostrophe.
Ь has a much wider usage than Ъ in Russian; Ь can be used at the end of words or in between two consonants, and it indicates that the preceding consonant is soft.
Neither Ъ nor Ь can be a stand alone letter or the first letter in a word.
At the same time, there are some letters in Russian that are always hard or always soft, and will sound the same way, whether there is the Soft sign (Ь), or not.
0:00 - Intro
0:28 - What do the Hard Sign (Ъ) and the Soft Sign (Ь) sound like in Russian?
1:03 - The function of Ъ and Ь
6:45 - Using Ъ and Ь today vs in the past
7:37 - Ъ in memes / online comments
7:50 - Ь in the middle / at the end of a word
9:24 - Ь after Ж, Ш, Ц
10:11 - Ь after Ч, Щ
11:11 - Ь in "-ться"
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0:28 - What do the Hard Sign (Ъ) and the Soft Sign (Ь) sound like in Russian?
1:03 - The function of Ъ and Ь
6:45 - Using Ъ and Ь today vs in the past
7:37 - Ъ in memes / online comments
7:50 - Ь in the middle / at the end of a word
9:24 - Ь after Ж, Ш, Ц
10:11 - Ь after Ч, Щ
11:11 - Ь in "-ться"
Long time ago, the Hard sign (Ъ) and the Soft sign (Ь) used to be short vowels.
Today, they don't have any sound, they both are used to separate a consonant and a vowel (mostly Я, Ё, Е, Ю), only the Hard sign (Ъ) separates a Hard consonant and a vowel, and the Soft sign (Ь) separates a Soft consonant and a vowel. In some other languages, a similar function belongs to an apostrophe.
❗️ Keep in mind that in fluent speech, syllables with Ъ and Ь (i.e. МЬЯ vs МЪЯ) do sound pretty similar.
Read more about Ъ and Ь in the description!
👆 *Learn* *to* *Read* *in* *Russian* in an Hour or So *(Full* *Guide* *For* *Reading* *in* *Russian):*
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👆 This video is a part of a *Jump-Start* *Guide* *for* *Learning* *Russian:* ua-cam.com/play/PLpgpVaWoAiTEF8aNQvPnFCLBrtIeF3tqa.html
Where do I vote in order to name you the best Russian teacher on the internet? You deserve the credit. You and your content are amazing!!!
😄 Спасибо, Алекс! You're so kind!
Quite agree!
I've only watched half of this one video and I'm convinced too!
agreed!
So many Russian teachers go with the whole palatization speech for this, so I found this explanation much clearer and much more practical for language learners. Not sure linguists would agree with the 'apostrophe' view, but this was very helpful. At speed, Russian speakers tend to swallow syllables, so these are tough things for language learners to pick up on
Been studying Russian off and on for 50 years. I've seen/heard hundreds of pronunciation tutorials, and I lived with Russians for three years. Never have I heard so brilliantly unique an explanation of these two sound modifiers. The new ideas and subtle insights are deeply novel with a truly effective result. Fact is, many might show up at first for your beauty, but, lord, are they ever in for a surprise when what else they encounter is a very gifted, unprecedented quality of instruction. Thank you for all of us who are applauding.
🤗
Thank you!
I'm learning Russian in Duolingo and during the letters study I came across this hard/soft sign and I just couldn't understand their purpose. But your explanation was so good I'm only 4min in and I already understand it now!
It is very similar to Japanese combo letters with 'ya, yu, yo', for example a common mistake I hear people say:
Tokiyo (to-ki-yo) when it is suppose to be Tokyo (to-kyo). The 'i' in 'ki' is missing and you don't pronounce it.
Other examples from Japanese: kyou (=today) and not ki-yo-u, jyu (=ten) not ji-yu etc...
Thanks again!
Oh, it's really clear. Thank you so much for the lesson. :))
Best video on helping me with pronunciation I have come across. Сбасибо.
Yes, your videos are incredibly helpful.
You just make me understand something I never did before. Thank you and you earned a new subscriber💪🏻
I just found this awesome awesome Russian language professor. She’s really good at teaching this beautiful language.
Best explanations of hard and soft signs!!
Здравствуйте из Бразилии. Очень симпатичная и вежливая. Мне тонкие разницы. Как Ш и Щ. 😊
Thank you so much. It’s very helpful and easy to be understood
Very helpful video, спасибо!
Отличное видео, прекрасное объяснение! Спасибо, я это долго искал
🤗
Super useful! Thank you so much.
What an excellent teacher.
Awesome explanation!
DAMN, Thanks a lot, you saved my life. I study English with phonetics and I couldn't just jump to another language and left the phonetics aside. I was in a huge struggle to understand the sound of ь and ъ in Russian words, and you were the one that made it clear and useful. I'm really thankful ❤️
...sorry for the bad English...
imo, hard sign and soft sign are convolunted ways of accomplishing two things - 1) taking Y sound and blending it into the preceding consonant, or 2) keeping a consonant separate from the following Y sound.
If Russian had a dedicated letter letter for the Y sound, then the soft sign letter wouldn't be needed at all - the default would be to blend Y into the consonant, and only the hard sign would indicate separation.
Excelente explicação
this is super helpful!! thank you so much
Nice explanation. So good
Gotta' say, this is the first video I've come across that really hit it hoe for me. It's CRAZY subtle, but you made it as clear as I think it could be. Thank you!
I’m happy to hear that 🤗
Very clear! Visuals very helpful!
Excellent explanation.
You are the best and most beautiful Russian teacher.this vid helped me ^__^
Супер! Очень интересно, спасибо большое
Спасибо, Джанкарло!
what an amazing video, waiting too long for such one
Ohhhh this was so helpful I’m gonna cry 😭 Tysm! I was so confused for so long!
🤗
The best explanation ever 😭💜
Indeed, you are the best teacher so far I’ve found on you tube. Kudos !👏👍🏻👏
In Bulgarian they make more sense than Russian because they have a sound in Bulgarian.
ь sounds like j (aktjor) (Актьор) - a Actor or Сервитьор (Servitjor) - a Waiter
Ъ sounds like 'uh' like in fun in english. It is used like an apostrophe, but it makes a sound between a/o - so it is technically a vowel in Bulgarian.
Дърво (Д'рво) (D'rvo) which is "tree" or "wood" - the Ъ is used a "bridge" vowel to make the sounds softer/fluid between two consonants, and not abrupt.
In our language, Ъ has its own sound, and it's a vowel
interesting. thanks for sharing.
I like this very much. that's kind of what it does in russian too, in reality, even though they don't teach that it does that.
If Russian made ь indicate the j/Y sound, then they could get rid of 5 of their vowels.
Instead of а, э, и, о, у + я, е, Й, ё, ю, + ы
it could be а, э, и, о, у + ьа, ьэ, ьи, ьо, ьу + ы
Akt’or
D”rvo
Excellent explanation even to beginner.
3:35 the key explanation that makes sense, without a lot of words that don't make sense.
I think the apostrophe made sense for me as a Czech speaker because they're used to make a y/j sound in l', d', etc
This was extremely helpful. Thank you for the very clear explanation. I'm glad I have found your channel.
Спасибо
Aha, now I'm beginning to get it ... Dankeschön, Спасибо!
7:45 i LOVE that construction. so perfect~!
Hard.
Like the other comments here say: this is really an excellent presentation, in every way.
0:36 Well that is a nice sound!
Awesome!!!
Even though I cannot hear the difference in each of those words, this was a big help, thanks!
Just give yourself some time to get used to those sounds
thanks!
Thanks.
Thank you so much for explaining this! I a have been wondering why ь is found directly after ш in so many verb conjugations when it doesn’t change anything - now I know it’s for historical reasons only.
Вы очень хорошая учителя, большое спасибо, Ольга!
Спасибо большое, Райан!
I have lived in Moscow 22 years, and the soft sign is still the bane of my existence.
Very Knowledgeable Content,
Viewer From India 🇮🇳
Thanks a lot ma:m!!!💝💝🙏🙏
Thank you so much, i'm a native portuguese speaker so i'v always had trouble understanding this letter, that is because everywhere i searched, all i found was people comparing it to the apostrophe, but that always confused me because in portuguese the apostrophe doesn't affect sound at all. For example: d'água (of water) is pronounced like "dágua", without a pause. So i never got it when people made the apostrophe-soft sign comparisson, but you explain it perfectly in this video, so i finally understood what it is supposed to do.
It compares better to the H in portuguese, wich doesen't have a sound but is used to change the sounds of other letters. For example, in PT "nha" is pronounced like "ньа" or "нья", and "lha" is "льа" or "лья", only situation wich this comparisson wouldn't apply would be "cha" where its pronounced like "ша" or "ща" (but one could argue does are kinda like softer "c" sounds), and "hospital" where it doesent affect the word at all and its just pronounced like "оспитау".
This is so much more helpful than all the other channels.
Man....i just have to say from personal testimonial, thank you. Thank you so much for the lessons. When I started and pursued Russian as a single black guy in Miami, my peers and family called me crazy, deeming it as impossible for someone like me. With so much doubt, it fueled the fire needed to keep going, despite the progressive difficulties. Youve lost faith in us as your distant Russian language students, and as a result, i too never lost faith in your teaching skills and my learning skills. In the month of November, im happy to say I will be expressing my absolute gratitude and happiness with having learned Russian through you at a beginners level, and will keep it going. So, from the bottom of my heart, спасибо! Someday i see myself leaving comments purely in Russian thanks to you!
Thank you so much, i've been pretty much confused with the ъ sign, dropped russian and started bulgarian because it has a similar letter yet it's different and i was still confused. Your video pretty much cleared it up.
I am studying Russian. I am subscribing you. 😍🙏🏻
I'm learning Russian now!! Spaseba!😁
Would you consider doing a video on the vowel reduction which occurred in Mowcow Russian about 200 years ago, whereby the middle vowel O, when occuring in an unstressed syllable, is reduced to a back vowel? I am aware that Lower Volga Russian does not follow that phonological reduction. My guess is that the trendy elite began speaking that way in Moscow, and that practice spread, and then the Soviet Union came along and wished to standardize Russian all over the country, and so taught that vowel reduction as "standard Russian." A lecture by you on this whole process would be really helpful. (And, by the way, I utterly refuse to make that vowel reduction when I attempt to speak RU... ☺ )
Danke!
Oh wow! Thank you Karl, glad you found it helpful!
This is the best explanation I've seen on this subject. Thank you
Nice
Hello Im Brazilian i started to study Russian in this year Im so Lucky i had found this Channel broke my all doubts about Hard Sign and Soft sign. this channel is really helpful you doing a great Job i really enjoying and learning by videos thank for Helping all of us teaching that amazing Language 😊!
Спасибо, Марио! I'm happy you find it helpful!
Eu também
very good. saw a tutorial someone saying tatiana with a strong N instead of making a stop at TATb and then pronouncing RNA. It's not the same Tatnaha than Tatbrna
6:52 The Hard sign and soft signs past sound
Omg tysm it helped me a lot ! Also good explaining ! 😍😍
I learned so much from you :D
I love Russian,but i always wondered what ь and ъ sounded like, how they're used,when they're used,and now i know !
Tysm
Thank you very much. I don’t know how ь follow infinitive to pronounce.
-ть is pronounced this way: ua-cam.com/video/4cSgPpqQ2Z8/v-deo.html
This video is pure gold!!
Btw does anybody feel like the 'soft' sounds sound more 'hard' and viceversa? For example in мель/мел or уоль/угал. That last "L" in угал sounds like english L and for me is way more 'soft' than the previous word (that sounds kinda similar to an spanish L)
I'd recommend you watch a quick explanation for Hard/Soft consonants in Russian :)
ua-cam.com/video/YrOFy4u7cyM/v-deo.html
And the next one, to practice the difference between Hard/Soft syllables:
ua-cam.com/video/4cSgPpqQ2Z8/v-deo.html
This sooo hard, wow. But at the same time it's never made more sense, so thank you so much; it really helped.☺ But I still don't fully get it.😂
You might want to start over from the beginning, here:
ua-cam.com/play/PLpgpVaWoAiTF7qeZnkArrYt2Fd6CJf2au.html
It's a break down of How Russian vowels work, Russian Hard vs Soft consonants, and a Reading exercise (3 first videos in the playlist, around 20 min in total). After that, watch the explanation for Ъ and Ь once again. It should make more sense in the end.
@@RussianComprehensive Wow, thank you so much! I'll watch it.😄😊
I like it
Man this is by far the best video ive come across explaining the soft sign and hard sign , but there is two things im still not clear with , 1) hard sign, what difference it exactly brings from that of a soft sign?? either making the consonant harder or stressing the following й + vowel sound? , 2) when using soft sign after a consonant and between two consonants i cant help but notice that the only difference it creates is the tongue placement i.e. back of your teeth vs roof of the mouth. Am i correct?....... Very thankful for anyone who could answer!! :)
1. Ъ doesn't affect a consonant (it stays hard), while Ь makes it soft (though the pronunciation in syllables like МЪЯ - МЬЯ is very similar)
2. correct
You might want to go through the first 3 videos over here, to get a better idea of what hard/soft consonants are: ua-cam.com/play/PLpgpVaWoAiTF7qeZnkArrYt2Fd6CJf2au.html
@@RussianComprehensive that was really helpful thank you :)
thanks i love russia and i learn russian
There isn't a difference between soft sign being between two consonants vs soft sign being after a consonant. In both cases the function is the same - it palatalizes the consonant preceding the soft sign.
So it's better not to create unnecessary categories.
Ohh I finally understand what the signs do now! But I cant tell the difference between the hard and soft sign :')
Learning Russian is easy, they said...
0:36 Crickets Chirping
By the way, as the man who reads liturgical texts in Church Slavonic language at the church services, I must add that in much-older-Russian, hard sign was possible before non-iotated vowels, as well.
I am little by little guiding a group of retired people through the Russian language (on a very basic level) and I got the question about the soft and hard 'snacks' today and could just a little explain, but I will bring this great explanation with me next time.
Really, I have to watch your lessons as there's one BIG problem teaching/learning Russian. There are always the possibility to ONLY transcribe the Russian words, but in that case a lot is missed, so I use the Russian words written in Cyrillic letters AND I (try to) transcribe the words and I explain why 'O' is pronounced 'A' in many cases etc. My idea is to make us recognise the Russian letters and successively learn how to pronounce them. I mean if we end up in Russia we will never see the sign 'MALAKO' or even worse 'PIVA'.
PS. I started learning Russian in 1992 and was pretty good at it when I got to work in SPb for a few years, but am slowly forgetting some of my skills. But our class is in it for the fun of it and I have promised to arrange a tour to Russia if I ever win on Lotto ....
I hear you. Today, traveling is quite complicated, but it’ll go back to what it used to be, eventually. Actually, it wasn’t even nearly that expensive or difficult as one might imagine. Before pandemic, a regular Aeroflot airfare to fly between Moscow and NY or Miami in the winter, was around $300 (for a return flight). I can assure you, it won’t require you winning a lottery when you decide to go to Russia :)
@@RussianComprehensive We are living in Sweden, and there are several travel agencies arranging a number of various travels to and in Russia. Two of the "students" had found a flood cruise from Moscow to Astrakhan and I had found a bus tour to SPb, Novgorod, Moscow and Velikie Luki (a place I have visited many times). But all and everything was cancelled due to the pandemic. Had it been possible to arrange a tour which also included visits to Russian homes, that had been fantastic.
What I really want to communicate is, not just a few simple phrases but as much of the Russian soul I can give. I will take a good friend from Dagestan to her doctor on Friday and I will invite her to our group to tell us about life in Kavkaz. That kind of input is very important as I guess learning the language is a bit hard for some, but this is much about getting together socially and pick up a спасибо here and a здравствуйте there. The soft and hard signs are not on our level, but when someone asks, I have to answer, and your lesson helps a lot.
Best on Internet so far
Thx
(5 dislikes)/(393 likes) = 0,0127 = 1,27% !!!
This means that nearly 99 persons out of 100 find this video really amazing and perfect.
I am not gonna make you compliments, because the mathematics already does them for me. 🤣👍👍
Well done!
Best Regards, from Italy.
I'm not sure what made me think of this, but would having either ь or ъ affect the devoicing of a final consonant or in a cluster since the consonant is no longer the last letter? For example, a word like тетрадь? Would the last consonant still devoice to a T?
Привет! There are voiced and voiceless consonants, and both can be hard or soft. A -д at the end of a word devoices to -т, and -дь will devoice to -ть. Тетрадь is pronounced as [титрАть].
I actually explain this over here: ua-cam.com/video/imiXGhO-Kc0/v-deo.html
10:35 why is it that in Russian writing, "SHy" get a special letters instead of being "SH+soft sign"? Why make this special case letter, but other letters have to use soft sign instead?
11:33 that's weird to me. why not soft Zh or hard Ch? it's totally doable, and Russian has hard and soft versions of all consonants.
I have a question. From this video I understand that both ь and ъ do not make by themselves syllables, and it makes perfect sense for words like семья where мь sticks with the preceding phonemes се-, thus yielding a two-syllable word [семь-я]. Yet, what about words like бьёт where there are no preceding phonemes for бь to stick to? What would the result be, either a two-syllable word [бь-ёт] (бь being a consonantal syllable, just like [n] in German heißen, IPA [häjsn̩]), or a one-syllable word [bjɵt] (in IPA) with a higher two-mora weight, [b] and [jɵt], in contrast with one-mora syllable ‘бёт’, in IPA [bʲøt]? I am really interested in this and I would really appreciate it if a native speaker could shine some light on how this works.
Бьёт has only one syllable. In Russian, it’s pretty straightforward, each vowel makes a separate syllable, so one vowel = one syllable.
у-вИ-дим-ся (see you)
от-лИч-но (great)
семь-я (family)
There are 10 vowel letters in Russian, right?
ua-cam.com/video/W4Hc6eQOt1o/v-deo.html
That was complete and amazing lesson. but I still have some difficulty to diagnose which sound is soft and which one is hard... what I gathered was that when pronounce a letter with help of palate the sound is hard and other wise is soft. Am I correct?
Thanks again for amazing video.
Check out the first three lessons from this Pronunciation playlist. I think, it’ll answer your question:
ua-cam.com/play/PLpgpVaWoAiTF7qeZnkArrYt2Fd6CJf2au.html
I swear to you this was the closest I got to giving up on the language
I hope you changed your mind though! :)
uah! 👍👍👍
Around 10:30 completely confusing. The Shcha sound is considered soft? It sounds very hard to me! Same with "ch". Obviously I don't understand soft and hard with these last consonants.
There you go:
ua-cam.com/video/YrOFy4u7cyM/v-deo.html
And she said “Й у makes you”, I felt that 😔
I've been studying Russian for a year now, and I think after this video I finally can get a hold of ь and ъ 😁 Благодарю 🙏🏻😊
It sounds like soft signs pull the syllable down where it appears while the hard one pitches it up where it appears?
With the Hard sign, the consonant stays hard, and the Soft sign makes the consonant soft. Here’s on the difference between hard and soft consonants:
ua-cam.com/video/YrOFy4u7cyM/v-deo.html
ДОЧЬ, ЛОЖЬ, МОЩЬ - feminine, but ЛУЧ, КОРЖ, БОРЩ - masculine. When you read a word with a soft sign which doesn't seem to have any purpose, you can use it as a lifehack to distinguish feminine and masculine nouns.
Я то русская, сижу и смотрю на бедных американцев учащих русский... Вам предстоит долгий путь, друзья 😘
when we have one of these vowels "Я Ё Ю Е И" in the end of the world and before them there is a one of those letter "АОУЭЫ" then the "Й" sound should be pronounced, but that's not the case with word like "субъективная" as you can see there is a vowel "А" before "Я" but when I run the voice translation it's pronounced last vowel "Я" without "Й" sounds ???
A word with a stressed Я would be a better example, like моЯ for instance, as unstressed vowels shorten. And yes, you will hear Й in Я when it follows a vowel, there's just no other way to distinguish it as Я, and not А.
@@RussianComprehensive But it's the Rule of the language ! if "Я, Ё, Ю, Е, И" followed by "А, О, У, Э, Ы" you should hear the "Й" sound so why we don't hear "Й" when we pronounce "субъективная" ? although Я is followed by a vowel A?
We do, check my previous comment.
Only you confused which letter follows which
In practice, the post-1917 Russian language sometimes used apostrophe instead of hard sign up until the 1960s or so. It may be seen in some books and printed materials made in those times. Ukrainian language simply uses apostrophe instead of hard sign.
True, the same does Belarusian.
but Ня~
3:02
Ъ is spelled like (tvriyeyrdeznak) and ь is spelled like (Myahkijhznak)
woooooooooo
Привет из Турции,я люблю русский язык🤗
What's the difference between У & Ю ? Thanks in advance
Here's a lesson on Russian vowels: ua-cam.com/video/W4Hc6eQOt1o/v-deo.html
I would argue that there is still a "y" sound to all of these, just that it's barely touched.
Ngl but the Russian alphabet scares me. Every time I'm on a roll I find a new letter that makes absolutely no sense to me.
You could take the same approach as when learning music or code, for instance. You take symbols to read a melody or a command, not as a word, right?
So, the Russian alphabet is also a set of symbols. If you focus on that and won't try to compare it to the English alphabet, it'll most probably take around a week or two to learn it: ua-cam.com/play/PLpgpVaWoAiTFTHeLvvnlFYNRsmC4FWd4j.html
Once you're familiar w/ most of the letters, practice reading syllables: ua-cam.com/video/4cSgPpqQ2Z8/v-deo.html
and then switch to simple words.
Wich letter (ъ or ь.?