How (and Why) to Say No in Russian | Detailed Explanation | Useful Intermediate Russian Vocabulary

pronunciation vocabulary Jan 18, 2022

Nyet, нет, no. You can write it in Russian with the Cyrillic alphabet: нет. You can write it in Russian with the Latin alphabet: nyet. Or you can just write it in English: no. But when you say it, say it decisively.

How do you say “No!” in Russian?

No! = Нет!

The word "нет" is pronounced like "nyet" in English or /njet/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The Russian letter "е" sounds like "yeh" in English or /je/ in IPA.

It can be difficult to remember that the letter "н" in Russian is pronounced like the letter "n" in English. And it can be difficult to recognize when a word is written in English or in Russian. For example, нет <-- This word was written using a Russian keyboard, but this word was written using an English keyboard --> HeT. Is it a new English word "het" or is it the Russian word "нет"?

How do you say “Yes!” in Russian?

Yes! = Да!

The word "да" is pronounced like "da" in English and /da/ in IPA. The letter "д" sounds...

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Pronunciation of the Russian letter Ы. Minimal Pairs И/Ы.

pronunciation Jan 14, 2021
Today we are going to talk about the pronunciation of the letter Ы in Russian. I have been teaching Russian for more than 10 years, and I swear, every single student that I had looked at me funny when I introduced this letter. And majority of them struggled with it. So in this blog post, I will show you a few easy methods that will help you quickly get how to pronounce the sound this letter makes. 
 
1). If you need a quick lesson and don’t have any time to read past this point, well, here it is. Imagine somebody punched you in your stomach and you are hurting: ыыыыыы. Yep, that is the letter Ы. Not clear enough? Well, I suggest you keep reading. 
 
2). Everybody knows that the right way to pronounce “У” is to smile as hard as you can while still saying “yyyyyyyy”. Do it very slowly and try to analyze what changes are happening while you are doing this exercise. “УУУУУ" and smile, SMILE!  And this is how you...
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