Reading
rules
lesson 1. stress in russian
Russian words can have only ONE stressed syllable (unlike English, where sometimes a slight second stress can appear). Also, in Russian you should pronounce the stressed syllable more emphatically.
Why is stress important?
1. It affects pronunciation of the entire word.
Actually it happens in many languages. Imagine that I’d read this English sentence with wrong stresses: MonikA follOws her busY mothEr. It’s hardly even understandable now. The same thing happens in Russian, so don’t mess the stress up.
2. Sometimes it affects the meaning. Look at these pairs of words (they are called homographs):
зАмок (castle) – замОк (locker)
жАркое (hot) – жаркОе (meat dish)
гвОздики (nails) – гвоздИки (carnations)
хлОпок (cotton) – хлопОк (clapping)
Атлас (atlas) – атлАс (satin)
мУка (suffering) – мукА (flour)
духИ (perfume) – дУхи (ghosts)
Unfortunately, the stress in Russian has no fixed place in a word and is basically unpredictable. It can appear anywhere. And even in the same noun in different cases it can “jump around”.
How to understand how to do it right? ALWAYS look at some dictionary first! Write down the words you’re trying to learn WITH the stress marks.
Here is a useful tool that adds stress marks to all the words you type (even if it’s a big text):
http://russiangram.com/ (http://russiangram.com/).
Part 2. Lesson 1 – Listen and repeat
Exercise: Listen and repeat:
Ма́ма, ма́ма, ма́ма, бана́н, бана́н, бана́н, дура́к, дура́к, дура́к, мы́шка, мы́шка, мы́шка, хи́трый, хи́трый, хи́трый, трава́, трава́, трава́, магази́н, магази́н, магази́н, до́лгий, до́лгий, до́лгий, заве́т, заве́т, заве́т, приве́т, приве́т, приве́т, каю́та, каю́та, каю́та, ую́т, ую́т, ую́т;
Му́ка | мука́, му́ка | мука́, му́ка | мука́, а́тлас | атла́с, а́тлас | атла́с, а́тлас | атла́с, ду́хи | духи́, ду́хи | духи́, ду́хи | духи́, ру́ки | руки́, ру́ки | руки́.