The work on the pronunciation of consonants: hard – soft

The distinctive role of consonants is great in the Russian language. That is why, it is important to know its distinguishing features: the opposition of consonants according to the hardness and softness.

To practice pronunciation you should train hard consonants as well as soft ones:
At first listen (to the record), then repeat. Always pay attention to the position of the tip of your tongue – it should always be near lower teeth.

Pronunciation exercises:

а – да, а – та, а – са, а – на, а – та, а – тэ, а – ту, а – ты, а – то.
дата [data], сады [sady], воды [vady], соты [soty], туда [tuda].

It is better to begin the pronunciation of soft consonants with the sound [м] – [m]. Let's choose the sound-assistant – [и] – [i]:

ими – ими – ми, ими – ими – имь
Ти – ити – ить, Тина [Tina] и Дина [Dina]

ими – ми – ти – ди – ни
ити – ити – иди – ини

Тина [Tina] – Дина [Dina], тень [ten'] – день [den'].
Будит [budit] – будить [budit'], просит [prosit] – просить [prosit']
ити - итя - ите - итё – итю

Pay attention: when you pronounce soft consonants, stretch your lips like you smile. In the case of hard consonants, the position of lips is more neutral.

Do the exercises on the opposition of soft and hard consonants. Read the text on a topic "Acquaintance":

Это мой отец. Это моя мать.
А это мой дядя Денис.
А это моя тётя Кристина.
А это моя тётя Дана.
А это моя тётя Зина, моя тётя Сима, моя тётя Нина, моя тётя Лара и тётя Рита.
А это мои дети Екатерина, Серёжа, Ирина, Илья, и Арина.
А это моя супруга Таисия.

This is my father. This is my mother.
And this is my uncle Denis
And this is my aunt Christina.
And this is my aunt Dana.
And this is my aunt Zina, my aunt Sima, my aunt Nina, my aunt Lara and my aunt Rita.
And these are my children: Yekaterina, Seryozha, Irina, Ilya and Arina.
And this is my wife Taisiya.

Practice the opposition [та – тя – тья] in contrasting exercises:

ма – мя – мья мэ – ме – мье
мать [mat'] – мять [myat'] – семья [sem'ya] – мэр [mehr] – пример [prim'er] – премьер [pr'em'er].

Татьяна встречает Илью. Тарас пишет статью. - Tatyana meets Ilya. Taras is writing an article.