Korean → Russian
Russian uses 46 sounds. You already own 17 of them from Korean. The other 29 are the work — and 25 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: alveolo-palatal → retroflex
Russian: school · written "ш"
ALWAYS hard, whatever vowel follows. ши is said /ʂɨ/, never /ʃi/.
Your /ɕ/ is the one in 시간 (time).
the move: close → near-close
Russian: winter · written "е", "я (unstressed)"
Your /i/ is the one in 이 (this; two; tooth).
the move: close → near-close
Russian: hand · written "у (unstressed)"
Your /u/ is the one in 우유 (milk).
the move: palatalised
Russian: five · written "пь", "пе", "пи", "пя"
Your /p/ is the one in 밥 (cooked rice; a meal).
the move: palatalised
Russian: white · written "бь", "би", "бе"
Your /b/ is the one in 바보 (fool).
the move: palatalised
Russian: books · written "ки", "ке"
Your /k/ is the one in 국 (soup).
the move: palatalised
Russian: guitar · written "ги", "ге"
Your /ɡ/ is the one in 고기 (meat).
the move: palatalised
Russian: all · written "сь", "си", "се"
Your /s/ is the one in 사람 (person).
the move: close, but not identical
Russian: borscht · written "щ"
Always SOFT and always long — the mirror image of ш.
Your /ɕ/ is the one in 시간 (time).
the move: palatalised
Russian: day · written "нь", "ни", "не"
Your /n/ is the one in 나 (I (plain)).
the move: palatalised
Russian: salt · written "ль", "ли", "ле"
Your /l/ is the one in 달 (moon).
the move: alveolar → labiodental
Russian: film · written "ф", "в (final)"
Your /s/ is the one in 사람 (person).
the move: alveolo-palatal → alveolar
Russian: price · written "ц"
Always hard, even before и.
Your /t͡ɕ/ is the one in 집 (house).
the move: voiced
Russian: tooth · written "з"
Final б is devoiced to /p/ — every voiced consonant does this at the end of a word.
Your /s/ is the one in 사람 (person).
the move: back → 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 /ɯ/ is the one in 그 (that; he).
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 닫다 (to close).
the move: alveolar → dental, palatalised
Russian: day · written "дь", "де", "ди"
Your /d/ is the one in 어디 (where).
the move: alveolo-palatal → velar
Russian: good, well · written "х"
Not /k/ and not English h — the sound at the end of Scottish loch.
Your /ɕ/ is the one in 시간 (time).
the move: alveolo-palatal → retroflex, voiced
Russian: wife · written "ж"
Always hard too.
Your /ɕ/ is the one in 시간 (time).
the move: tap → trill
Russian: hand, arm · written "р"
Trilled, as in Spanish perro.
Your /ɾ/ is the one in 우리 (we; our).
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 나라 (country).
the move: open-mid → mid, back → central
Russian: good · written "о", "а (far from stress)"
Further from the stress, the reduction goes further still.
Your /ʌ/ is the one in 서울 (Seoul).
the move: alveolar → labiodental, palatalised
Russian: film · written "фи", "фе"
Your /s/ is the one in 사람 (person).
the move: voiced, palatalised
Russian: winter · written "зь", "зи", "зе"
Your /s/ is the one in 사람 (person).
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.
- f = fʲ = s = sʲ = z = zʲ → your s vs vs vs vs vs
- x = ʂ = ʐ = ɕː → your ɕ vs 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
- t͡s = t͡ɕ → your t͡ɕ vs
- m = mʲ → your m vs
- n = nʲ → your n vs
- l = lʲ → your l vs
- a = ɐ → your a vs
- i = ɪ → your i vs
- u = ʊ → your u vs
Genuinely new
Nothing in Korean 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.
water
Closest thing you own: — but alveolar → labiodental, voiced.
chemistry
Closest thing you own: — but alveolo-palatal → velar, palatalised.
door
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → trill, palatalised.
evening
Closest thing you own: — but alveolar → labiodental, voiced, palatalised.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Korean | Russian | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed, phrase melody | Stress-timed, heavily reduced |
| Stress | None at word level. No syllable is reduced and no vowel becomes a schwa; every syllable is said in full. What an English ear hears as stress is the phrase-initial rise. | 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
17 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 Korean 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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