LESSON 22: VOICED & VOICELESS CONSONANTS

Consonants in Russian, as well as in English, can be voiced or voiceless. Knowing the opposition between voiced and voiceless consonants is essential for correct pronunciation and spelling.

To understand the concept of voiced and voiceless consonants, let's look at the pair of English letters ‘b’ and ‘p’. When pronouncing these letters, your lips are positioned the same way for both. However, with ‘b’, you produce a louder sound by vibrating your vocal cords, while with ‘p’, you do not use your vocal cords and the sound is quieter (like you are whispering). Thus, ‘b’ is a voiced consonant and ’p’ is a voiceless consonant.

Similarly, in Russian, some consonants form pairs where one is voiced and the other is voiceless: б - п, в - ф, г - к, д - т, з - с, ж - ш. Besides, there are eight consonants without a pair: four voiced ones (м, л, н, р) and four voiceless (х, ч, ц, щ).

Listen to the audio paying attention to the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants in each pair and the similarity in their articulation.

Here are three basic rules of pronunciation concerning voiced and voiceless consonants. 

Rule 1. Voiced consonants at the end of the word are pronounced voiceless. 

NOTE! If the word ends in a soft sign ‘ь’, the previous consonant is still pronounced voiceless, like in the words ‘обувь’, ‘медь’.

Rule 2. Voiced consonants are pronounced voiceless when standing before voiceless consonants.

Rule 3. Voiceless consonants are pronounced voiced when standing before voiced consonants.

NOTE! Rules 2 and 3 are called ‘consonant assimilation’. To put it shortly, when two consonants stand next to each other, the second influences the first one so that both consonants sound alike.