Spanish → Russian
Russian uses 46 sounds. You already own 19 of them from Spanish. The other 27 are the work — and 27 of those are the dangerous kind: close enough to something you already say that you will substitute them without hearing yourself do it.
The silent swaps
Your mouth has something close enough to reach for. These survive for years precisely because they sound right to you — the fix is hearing the difference first, not trying harder.
the move: bilabial → labiodental
Russian: water · written "в"
Your /β/ is the one in haber (to have).
the move: dental → alveolar
Russian: tooth · written "з"
Final б is devoiced to /p/ — every voiced consonant does this at the end of a word.
Your /ð/ is the one in nada (nothing).
the move: postalveolar → alveolar
Russian: price · written "ц"
Always hard, even before и.
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in chico (boy).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Russian: hour · written "ч"
Always soft, even before а.
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in chico (boy).
the move: close → near-close
Russian: winter · written "е", "я (unstressed)"
Your /i/ is the one in sí (yes).
the move: close → near-close
Russian: hand · written "у (unstressed)"
Your /u/ is the one in luz (light).
the move: palatalised
Russian: five · written "пь", "пе", "пи", "пя"
Your /p/ is the one in pan (bread).
the move: palatalised
Russian: white · written "бь", "би", "бе"
Your /b/ is the one in vaca (cow).
the move: palatalised
Russian: books · written "ки", "ке"
Your /k/ is the one in queso (cheese).
the move: palatalised
Russian: guitar · written "ги", "ге"
Your /ɡ/ is the one in gato (cat).
the move: palatalised
Russian: film · written "фи", "фе"
Your /f/ is the one in fuego (fire).
the move: palatalised
Russian: all · written "сь", "си", "се"
Your /s/ is the one in sol (sun).
the move: palatalised
Russian: chemistry · written "хи", "хе"
Your /x/ is the one in jamón (ham).
the move: palatalised
Russian: day · written "нь", "ни", "не"
Your /n/ is the one in noche (night).
the move: palatalised
Russian: salt · written "ль", "ли", "ле"
Your /l/ is the one in luna (moon).
the move: velar → retroflex
Russian: school · written "ш"
ALWAYS hard, whatever vowel follows. ши is said /ʂɨ/, never /ʃi/.
Your /x/ is the one in jamón (ham).
the move: velar → retroflex
Russian: wife · written "ж"
Always hard too.
Your /ɣ/ is the one in agua (water).
the move: front → central
Russian: son · written "ы", "и (after hard)"
The vowel English has no name for. Say /i/ and pull your tongue straight back without rounding.
Your /i/ is the one in sí (yes).
the move: alveolar → dental, palatalised
Russian: to take · written "ть", "ти", "те", "тя"
брат 'brother' vs брать 'to take'. The soft sign is the only difference, and it is not a sound of its own.
Your /t/ is the one in todo (all).
the move: alveolar → dental, palatalised
Russian: day · written "дь", "де", "ди"
Your /d/ is the one in dedo (finger).
the move: bilabial → labiodental, palatalised
Russian: evening · written "вь", "ве", "ви"
Your /β/ is the one in haber (to have).
the move: dental → alveolar, palatalised
Russian: winter · written "зь", "зи", "зе"
Your /ð/ is the one in nada (nothing).
the move: palatalised
Russian: door · written "рь", "ри", "ре"
Your /r/ is the one in perro (dog).
the move: open → near-open, front → central
Russian: water · written "о", "а (unstressed)"
AKANYE: unstressed о is said as an a-sound. молоко́ is /məlɐˈko/ — the three о are three different vowels.
Your /a/ is the one in casa (house).
the move: close-mid → mid, front → central
Russian: good · written "о", "а (far from stress)"
Further from the stress, the reduction goes further still.
Your /e/ is the one in mesa (table).
the move: alveolar → alveolo-palatal
Russian: borscht · written "щ"
Always SOFT and always long — the mirror image of ш.
Your /s/ is the one in sol (sun).
Words you may say identically
Two or more Russian sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
- s = sʲ = ɕː → your s vs vs
- x = xʲ = ʂ → your x vs vs
- i = ɨ = ɪ → your i vs vs
- p = pʲ → your p vs
- b = bʲ → your b vs
- t = tʲ → your t vs
- d = dʲ → your d vs
- k = kʲ → your k vs
- ɡ = ɡʲ → your ɡ vs
- f = fʲ → your f vs
- v = vʲ → your β vs
- z = zʲ → your ð vs
- t͡s = t͡ɕ → your t͡ʃ vs
- m = mʲ → your m vs
- n = nʲ → your n vs
- l = lʲ → your l vs
- r = rʲ → your r vs
- a = ɐ → your a vs
- e = ə → your e vs
- u = ʊ → your u vs
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Spanish | Russian | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed | Stress-timed, heavily reduced |
| Stress | Fully contrastive, and mercifully written: if a word breaks the default pattern (stress on the second-to-last syllable for vowel/-n/-s endings, on the last otherwise) it carries an accent. Three-way minimal sets are common and the accent is the only thing separating them. | Contrastive, and NOT written. За́мок is a castle and замо́к is a lock. Worse, it moves within a word’s own declension — рука́ but ру́ку, окно́ but о́кна — so knowing the word is not the same as knowing where to hit it. Dictionaries mark it; native writing does not. |
What you have that Russian doesn't
8 sounds with no job in Russian. They are not mistakes — but they are where an accent leaks in, because a sound you own is easy to use when a hard one is due.
The honest caveat
This is a prediction from the shape of two sound systems, not a recording of you. It says what your inventory makes likely — it cannot know that your Spanish has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned Russian from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
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