Italian → Russian
Russian uses 46 sounds. You already own 21 of them from Italian. The other 25 are the work — and 24 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: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Russian: hour · written "ч"
Always soft, even before а.
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in ciao (hi/bye).
the move: close → near-close
Russian: winter · written "е", "я (unstressed)"
Your /i/ is the one in vita (life).
the move: close → near-close
Russian: hand · written "у (unstressed)"
Your /u/ is the one in luna (moon).
the move: palatalised
Russian: five · written "пь", "пе", "пи", "пя"
Your /p/ is the one in pane (bread).
the move: palatalised
Russian: white · written "бь", "би", "бе"
Your /b/ is the one in bene (well).
the move: palatalised
Russian: books · written "ки", "ке"
Your /k/ is the one in chiave (key).
the move: palatalised
Russian: guitar · written "ги", "ге"
Your /ɡ/ is the one in gatto (cat).
the move: palatalised
Russian: film · written "фи", "фе"
Your /f/ is the one in fame (hunger).
the move: palatalised
Russian: evening · written "вь", "ве", "ви"
Your /v/ is the one in vino (wine).
the move: palatalised
Russian: all · written "сь", "си", "се"
Your /s/ is the one in sole (sun).
the move: palatalised
Russian: winter · written "зь", "зи", "зе"
Your /z/ is the one in sbaglio (mistake).
the move: palatalised
Russian: day · written "нь", "ни", "не"
Your /n/ is the one in naso (nose).
the move: palatalised
Russian: salt · written "ль", "ли", "ле"
Your /l/ is the one in latte (milk).
the move: postalveolar → retroflex
Russian: school · written "ш"
ALWAYS hard, whatever vowel follows. ши is said /ʂɨ/, never /ʃi/.
Your /ʃ/ is the one in pesce (fish).
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 vita (life).
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 tavolo (table).
the move: alveolar → dental, palatalised
Russian: day · written "дь", "де", "ди"
Your /d/ is the one in dove (where).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Russian: borscht · written "щ"
Always SOFT and always long — the mirror image of ш.
Your /ʃ/ is the one in pesce (fish).
the move: alveolar → retroflex
Russian: wife · written "ж"
Always hard too.
Your /z/ is the one in sbaglio (mistake).
the move: plosive → fricative
Russian: good, well · written "х"
Not /k/ and not English h — the sound at the end of Scottish loch.
Your /k/ is the one in chiave (key).
the move: palatalised
Russian: door · written "рь", "ри", "ре"
Your /r/ is the one in Roma (Rome).
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 sera (evening).
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.
- k = kʲ = x → your k vs vs
- z = zʲ = ʐ → your z 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
- ɡ = ɡʲ → your ɡ vs
- f = fʲ → your f vs
- v = vʲ → your v vs
- s = sʲ → your s vs
- ʂ = ɕː → your ʃ 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
Genuinely new
Nothing in Italian sits close to these. They sound foreign in your mouth — which is the good news: you can hear that you are not saying them yet.
chemistry
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → fricative, palatalised.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Italian | Russian | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed + long consonants | Stress-timed, heavily reduced |
| Stress | Contrastive. The default is the second-to-last syllable, and the accent is only written when the stress falls on the LAST one (città, perché). Words stressed on the third-from-last (àncora, prìncipi) are common and unmarked — the dictionary is the only way to know. | 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
9 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 Italian 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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