Вимова і наголос

Two things decide whether a Russian word sounds Russian: where the stress falls and what happens to the vowels that are not stressed. A third habit, devoicing at the end of a word, finishes the picture.

Stress is free and has to be learned

Russian stress can fall on any syllable, and nothing in the spelling marks it. молоко́ (milk) is stressed at the end, ко́мната (room) at the start, соба́ка (dog) in the middle. It can also move within one word: рука́ (hand) but ру́ку (the hand, as an object). Learn every new word with its stress, the way this course prints it with an accent mark. Real texts leave the marks out.

Stress can change the meaning: за́мок is a castle, замо́к is a lock. мука́ is flour, му́ка is torment.

Unstressed vowels shrink

English speakers already do this: the second "a" in "banana" is a weak schwa. Russian does it systematically, and the spelling does not follow the sound.

So Москва́ starts with [ma], and хорошо́ (good) is [xərasho]: only the last O is a real O. The most common mistake English speakers make is reading every О as [o], which makes them sound like they are spelling the word out.

Voiced consonants go voiceless at the end of a word

At the end of a word, a voiced consonant loses its voice. The spelling stays the same; the sound changes.

English keeps final voicing ("bad" and "bat" are different words), so this feels wrong at first. Say хлеб with a final [b] and a Russian will understand you, but it will sound foreign. The same thing happens before a voiceless consonant inside a word: ло́дка (boat) is [lotkə].