The letter n is hard or. Learning to read

Phonetics is a capricious lady, although interesting. It's no secret that all sounds in the Russian language are divided into consonants and vowels. The former, in turn, are divided into voiced and voiceless, soft and hard. This classification is based on the way we pronounce sounds and the characteristics of our articulatory apparatus. So how can you tell them all apart?

What exactly is the matter?

1st grade begins to study soft and hard consonant sounds at the very beginning of the Russian language course. But in order to distinguish some phonemes from others, you must first understand what the difference is between them and vowels.

Vowel sounds are pronounced only with the voice. You can sing them, stretch them out - this is exactly how teachers explain to children at school. When the air leaving the lungs passes through the trachea, larynx, and oral cavity, it does not encounter any obstacles. When we talk about consonants, to pronounce them you need to use your lips, teeth and tongue - they all participate in the process, so to speak.

Comparing consonants and vowels by their sound, we notice the following trend: when vowels, as mentioned above, are sounded only with the help of one voice, then the consonants still contain noise created by the interference that the air has to encounter when pronouncing them. This is their main difference. Unvoiced sounds are pronounced only with this very noise, while in voiced sounds a voice is also added to it. Compare, for example, the pronunciation of the words “grotto” and “mole” or “house” and “tom”. In both cases, the first letters are the letters of hard consonants, voiced and unvoiced, respectively.

“Let's go back to our sheep!”

Now that we already know a little about the differences in consonants, let's move on to our main topic.

The best way to learn is by example, right? And again let's turn to the comparison: let's say the following pairs of words:

Racket rack, bun bureau, mother - ball, vine - ice, tower - view.

There is some difference in the way we pronounce consonants. Is not it? It is determined by vowel sounds that come after consonants. The words are specially selected so that the sounds we need are in the same position in all examples. In this case, they show all their diversity. Say it again, slowly. Do you feel how the tongue, in those words where the consonants sound softer, does not rest against the palate, but seems to relax and become flat? This can be considered the main feature that our hard consonants have during articulation.

Theory

Well, now let's move on to a specific theory. Hard consonants - a table that will consist of two parts. The first thing you need to remember is that the hardness or softness of a sound is determined by its neighboring vowel. When after the letter there is a, o, y, s , then the sound it denotes will definitely be hard (mitten, stomp, lips, played), and if there are e, e, yu, i, and , the consonant will sound softer (blizzard, doggie, mint, Kyiv). Thus, we can say that there is no point in memorizing all hard consonants. Almost all of them are paired. This property was shown in the first row of words, where we learned to distinguish between hard and soft sounds. Therefore, everything depends on this very vowel.

Unpaired consonants

Another question is how to deal with unpaired consonants. There are very few of these in the Russian language: w, w, c . No matter how hard you try, you won't be able to say them softly. Even if after them those vowels that are usually used with soft consonants are written: ramrod - rustling - chic, creepy - liquid - tin, price - circus - king. These consonants are contrasted with unpaired h, sch, th , which will sound soft in all cases: chock - thicket - cleaning, cheeks - squint - crushed stone, yot - yogurt.

Break the system!

In this situation, you need to understand that the rule of following a vowel with them does not apply to unpaired hard consonant sounds. The table, which can be compiled for better assimilation of the material, in any case, will consist of two parts - paired, the equivalent of which can always be found by changing the vowel, and unpaired, living by their own rules.

Let's remember

Now let's move on to methods of studying and memorizing. 1st grade remembers hard consonants reluctantly - it’s too boring. But there is always a way to increase efficiency by getting the student interested in an unusual form of work, even with material that is so theoretical and unnecessary, at first glance. Various pictures, diagrams, drawings and games with word choice will come to our aid.

Let's make cards, perhaps. You will need two sheets of colored paper or colored cardboard. The main thing is that they are contrasting. We cut out identical clouds, balls, figures - whatever comes to your mind. Then we connect the two figures with glue so that these very contrasting sides are on the outside. And then, with the participation of your little assistant, on one side we write vowels that are friendly with soft consonants, and on the other - with hard consonants. In order not to forget anything at all, you can also place unpaired and paired ones next to each other, respectively. When everything is at hand, it is much easier.

Next, we draw something that can help create an association - a brick on cardboard with hard sounds written on it, and a feather with soft phonemes. Or something else like that. Having a concrete example before his eyes, the student will certainly learn the information better. Later, for reinforcement, you can ask your student to highlight hard and soft sounds in written words in different colors - red and blue, for example, so that you can easily check his homework.

Material at hand

To prepare the signs mentioned above, you still need to have some kind of material. Hard consonant sounds - a table that you can rely on to make sure you don’t get confused. For convenience, it contains paired and unpaired sounds in terms of hardness and softness. By the way, if we want to indicate the softness of a sound, in phonetic transcription, for example, an apostrophe is placed after it.

In this table, all phonemes at the top are hard. Below are their soft counterparts. True, we have three cases when the sound does not have a pair. This means it is never soft.

Let's remember further

Shall we continue to practice? Let's give more examples of words where the same consonant sound appears in a hard or soft position. One more nuance. In addition to those very vowels that influence a consonant, it can be softened or made hard by a soft and hard sign, respectively. Let's not forget about this in our next task.

Beaver - white, blizzard - goalkeeper, city - helium, entrance - clerk, giraffe, winter - teeth, whale cat, horse - lemonade, zhmenya - sea, Neptune - rhinoceros, steamboat - break, decision-novel, owl - family, cake - theme, film-photography, halva - diagram, chicken, hat.

Determine the words from the presented pair that demonstrate soft or hard consonants. As you can see, the letters used to designate them are still the same. Please note that in some words, hardness and softness are influenced not only by vowels, but also by consonants that stand next to our sound. In addition, you can also ask your child to come up with examples for unpaired consonants, so that he can see for himself that they are only hard. Still, one’s own experience is a much more vivid confirmation than any memorized theory.

One more game

To study the topic of soft and hard consonants, you can offer the student another game like this. It's very simple. In front of him is a series of words, from which only hard consonants need to be written down. And then, inserting vowels into them, come up with some word. For example, there are a number of words: pickles - footman - knives. We write out the consonants: s, l, n, add vowels. And the first thing that comes to mind is the short but capacious word “elephant”. Shall we continue?

Edit - will - crowbar(signed out pr, v, l ).
Tomato - role - swamp(signed out t, r, t ).
Bittern - dormouse - hay(signed out in, with, n ).

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to remind you that under no circumstances should you say “hard consonants.” Only sounds are like that. And their designations are absolutely the same as in the case of soft ones (this was clear from the table above). Now that you have all the material in your hands, all that remains is to practice. On the Internet you can find a huge number of different games and exercises for determining the type of consonants. And, of course, you can re-read the material on the topic “Hard consonant sounds” several more times - the table presented in the article will help systematize all our knowledge. It will be much easier to repeat with her.

Do not forget to give new examples for each paired and unpaired sound, so that our student himself learns to compare the different sounds of consonant phonemes. It sometimes depends not only on the subsequent vowel or soft and hard sign, but also on neighboring consonants, which, depending on their hardness or softness, can also influence the original sound. It's not as complicated as it seems. More games and practice - and everything will definitely work out.

Cards - hard and soft consonants

In continuation of the post “How to teach a child to read by syllables? Making words from syllables,” I offer you new material - cards with hard and soft consonant sounds.

Use the cards to teach your child to determine when consonants are soft and when they are hard.

Blue - solid
Green - soft

Consonant sounds can be soft or hard. For example, in the word “world” you hear a soft consonant zyuk [m”], and in the word “poppy” you hear a hard consonant sound [m]. The softness of a consonant is indicated by adding the symbol “to its notation, for example: [m"].

Remember:
Always soft sounds: [th’], [h’], [sh’].
Always hard sounds: [zh], [sh], [ts].

The remaining sounds are soft if they are immediately followed by the vowels e, ё, i, yu, я or ь, and hard if they are followed by other vowels and consonants.

Hard and soft consonants differ in the position of the tongue.
When pronouncing soft consonants ([b"], [v"], [d"], [z"], etc.), the entire body of the tongue moves forward, and the middle part of the back of the tongue rises to the hard palate. This movement of the tongue is called palatalization. Palatalization is considered an additional articulation: it is superimposed on the main one associated with the formation of an obstruction.

When pronouncing hard consonants ([b], [v], [d], [z], etc.), the tongue does not move forward and its middle part does not rise.
Consonants form 15 pairs of sounds contrasting in hardness/softness. All of them are either hard doubles or soft doubles:
[b] - [b"]
[in] - [in"]
[g] - [g"]
[d] - [d"]
[z] - [z"]
[p] - [p"]
[f] - [f"]
[k] - [k"]
[t] - [t"]
[s] - [s"]
[mm"]
[n] - [n"]
[r] - [r"]
[l] - [l"]
[x] - [x"]

When spoken voiced consonants the air flow creates vibrations of the vocal cords. If the vocal cords are not used, then the sound is considered deaf.

But in Russian, a voiced letter does not always denote a voiced sound (and vice versa: a voiceless consonant does not always denote a voiceless sound). It depends on the position of the letter in the word.

Voiced consonant often stunned at the end of a word. For example, in the word “colander” we read “k” at the end, because the sound is in a weak position. Can also be stunned before a voiceless consonant. For example, we pronounce the word “gait” as “plowing”.

To determine which letter will be written correctly, the letter must be placed in a strong position in a word with the same root (that is, before the vowel or consonants M, L, N, R).

For example: “boat” - “boat”, “mushroom” - “mushroom”.

Table

Doubles	Voiced	Deaf
	B
		F
	G
		T
	AND
		WITH
Unpaired	L, M, N, R, J (sonorant)

Also paired in deafness/voicing are pairs of soft consonants from those indicated in the table. For example: “b’ - p’”, “v’ - f’”.

Hard and soft

In words, the same letter can represent both hard and soft sounds. This is due to the influence of subsequent consonants on softness/hardness. Hard consonants sound before A, O, U, Y, E, soft consonants sound before I, E, Yo, Yu, I.

Table

Doubles Before A, O, U, Y, E - solid. Before I, E, E, Yu, I are soft.	Solid		Soft
		b	b‘	white
	vase	V	V‘
			G‘
		d	d‘	uncle
	ash	h	h‘
		To	To‘	brick
	varnish	l	l‘
		m	m‘	world
	our	n	n‘
		P	P‘	song
	rose	R	R‘
		With	With‘	blue
	cloud	T	T‘
		f	f‘	movie
	withers	X	X‘	Helsinki
Unpaired	f, w, c		h, sch, th

What exactly is the matter?

“Let's go back to our sheep!”

Now that we already know a little about the differences in consonants, let's move on to our main topic.

The best way to learn is by example, right? And again let's turn to the comparison: let's say the following pairs of words:

Racket rack, bun bureau, mother - ball, vine - ice, tower - view.

Theory

Unpaired consonants

Break the system!

Let's remember

Material at hand

In this table, all phonemes at the top are hard. Below are their soft counterparts. True, we have three cases when the sound does not have a pair. This means it is never soft.

Let's remember further

One more game

Edit - will - crowbar(signed out pr, v, l ).
Tomato - role - swamp(signed out t, r, t ).
Bittern - dormouse - hay(signed out in, with, n ).

Conclusion

What is sound? This is the minimum component of human speech. Depicted in letters. In written form, sounds are distinguished from letters by the presence of square brackets at the first, which are used in phonetic transcription. The letter is o, the sound is [o]. The transcription shows differences in spelling and pronunciation. Apostrophe [ ‘ ] indicates soft pronunciation.

In contact with

The sounds are divided into:

Vowels. They can be pulled easily. During their creation, the tongue does not take an active part, being fixed in one position. The sound is created due to changes in the position of the tongue, lips, various vibrations of the vocal cords and the force of air supply. Length of vowels – basis of vocal art(chanting, “singing smoothly”).
Consonant sounds a are pronounced with the participation of the tongue, which, occupying a certain position and shape, creates an obstacle to the movement of air from the lungs. This leads to noise in the oral cavity. At the output they are converted into sound. Also, the free passage of air is hampered by the lips, which close and open during speech.

Consonants are divided into:

voiceless and voiced. Deafness and sonority of sound depend on the functioning of the speech apparatus;
hard and soft. The sound is determined by the position of the letter in the word.

Letters representing consonants

Deaf

Voiceless in Russian: [k], [p], [s], [t], [f], [x], [ts], [sh]. The easiest way to remember is a phrase, and not a set of letters, “Styopka, do you want a cheek? Fi!” containing them all.

An example in which all consonant sounds are unvoiced: rooster, honeycomb, pin.

Voiced

When they are formed, the shape of the tongue is close to the form that produces voiceless sounds, but vibrations are added. Voiced consonant sounds create active vibrations of the ligaments. Vibrations deform the sound wave, and not a pure stream of air enters the oral cavity, but sound. Subsequently, it is further transformed by the tongue and lips.

Voiced consonants include: b, c, g, d, g, z, j, l, m, n, r.

When they are pronounced, tension is clearly felt in the larynx area. In addition, it is almost impossible to speak them clearly in a whisper.

A word in which all consonants are voiced: Rome, pride, ash, estuary.

Summary table of consonants (voiceless and voiced).

It is due to the change in sound that Russian speech is enriched with various words that are similar in spelling and pronunciation, but completely different in meaning. For example: house - volume, court - itch, code - year.

Paired consonants

What does pairing mean? Two letters that are similar in sound and, when pronounced, take similar positions with the tongue, are called paired consonants. The pronunciation of consonants can be divided into one-stage (lips and tongues are involved in their creation) and two-stage - the ligaments are connected first, then the mouth. Those cases when, during pronunciation, mouth movements coincide and create pairs.

Summary table of paired consonants taking into account hardness and softness

In speech, it is common not to pronounce each letter, but to “eat” it. This is not an exception only for Russian speech. This is found in almost all languages of the world and is especially noticeable in English. In Russian, this effect is subject to the rule: paired consonant sounds replace (auditory) each other during speech. For example: love – [l’ u b o f’].

But not everyone has their own pair. There are some that are not similar in pronunciation to any others - these are unpaired consonants. The reproduction technique differs from the pronunciation of other sounds and combines them into groups.

Paired consonants

Unpaired consonants

The first group can be pronounced softly. The second has no analogues in pronunciation.

Unpaired consonants are divided into:

sonors – [y’], [l], [l’], [m], [m’], [n], [n’], [r], [r’]. When they are pronounced, a stream of air hits the upper sky, like a dome;
hissing – [x], [x’], [ts], [h’], [sch’].

The Russian language contains letters that are difficult to understand in context. Are the sounds [ch], [th], [ts], [n] voiced or unvoiced? Learn these 4 letters!

Important![h] - deaf! [th] - sonorous! [ts] is deaf! [n] – sonorous!

Unpaired consonants

Hard and soft

They are the same in spelling, but different in sound. Voiceless and voiced consonants, with the exception of hissing ones, can be pronounced hard or soft. For example: [b] was – [b`] beat; [t] current – [t`] flowed.

When pronouncing hard words, the tip of the tongue is pressed against the palate. Soft ones are formed by pressing to the upper palate of the middle part of the tongue.

In speech, the sound is determined by the letter following the consonant.

Vowels form pairs: a-ya, u-yu, e-e, y-i, o-yo.

Double vowels (I, ё, yu, e) are pronounced in one of two combinations: the sound [th] and a paired vowel from E, O, U, A, or a soft sign and a paired vowel. For example, the word cabin boy. It is pronounced [y] [y] [n] [g] [a]. Or the word mint. It is pronounced as: [m’] [a] [t] [a]. The vowels A, O, U, E, Y do not have a double sound, therefore do not affect the pronunciation of the preceding consonant.

Example difference:

A spoon is a hatch, honey is a sea, a house is a woodpecker.

Phonetic transcription:

[Spoon] – [L’ u k], [m’ o d] – [m o r’ e], [house] – [d’ a t e l].

Pronunciation rules:

solid ones are pronounced before A, O, U, E, Y. Abscess, side, beech, Bentley, former;
soft ones are pronounced before Ya, Yo, Yu, E, I. Revenge, honey, whale, mashed potatoes, mint;
hard ones are pronounced if they are followed by another consonant: death. After the consonant [s] there is a consonant [m]. Regardless of whether the M is soft, voiced or hard, the S is pronounced firmly;
hard ones are pronounced if the letter comes last in the word: class, house;
Consonants before the vowel [e] in borrowed words are pronounced firmly, as before [e]. For example: muffler – [k] [a] [w] [n] [e];
always soft before b: elk, pulp.
exceptions to the rules:
- always solid F, W, C: life, thorns, cyanide;
- always soft Y, H, Sh: white, black, pike.

Attention! A voiceless letter does not always represent the same sound. It depends on the position in the word.

Hard and soft sounds

Stun

The Russian language has a concept of stunning - some voiced ones sound like voiceless ones consonant sounds from a pair.

This is not a speech defect, but, on the contrary, is considered a criterion for its purity and correctness. But this rule only works with paired consonants. For example, [g] in speech is often replaced by [x]. This refers to a defect, since [g], which is close to [x], is considered a distinctive feature of the Ukrainian language. Its use in Russian speech is incorrect. The exception is the word God.

Rules and examples:

the letter is the last in the word: tooth - [zup], ice hole - [p r o r u p’];
after the letter there is a voiceless consonant: russula - [raw cheese].

There is a reverse process - voicing. Means that in speech voiceless ones are pronounced as their counterparts to voiced ones. Voicing is justified when they come before voiced consonants: transaction - [z d' e l k a].

Consonants, voiced and voiceless, hard and soft

Consonant sounds are voiced and unvoiced. Russian language lesson in 5th grade