The Pronunciation of Russian Words

Every Russian word has one strongly accented syllable, which is marked with an acute accent. The vowels are to be sounded as in Italian.

• Ch to be sounded as in English.

• G always hard, as in “give,” “got”: never as in “gem.”

• J always as in English.

• Kh like German ch, or Scotch ch in “loch.”

• L when hard (e.g. before a, o, u) something like ll in “pull”; when soft (e.g. before e, i) like l in French “vil.”

• S always hard, as in “so.”

• V as in English: at the end of words as f.

• Y consonantly, as in English “yet”; as a vowel like i in “will.”

• Z always as in English.

• Zh like s in leisure, or French j.