Vietnamese → Russian
Russian uses 46 sounds. You already own 17 of them from Vietnamese. 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: close → near-close
Russian: winter · written "е", "я (unstressed)"
Your /i/ is the one in đi (to go).
the move: close → near-close
Russian: hand · written "у (unstressed)"
Your /u/ is the one in thu (autumn; to collect).
the move: palatalised
Russian: five · written "пь", "пе", "пи", "пя"
Your /p/ is the one in họp (to meet, a meeting).
the move: close, but not identical
Russian: brother · written "б"
Your /ɓ/ is the one in ba (three; father).
the move: close, but not identical
Russian: house · written "д"
Your /ɗ/ is the one in đi (to go).
the move: palatalised
Russian: books · written "ки", "ке"
Your /k/ is the one in cá (fish).
the move: palatalised
Russian: film · written "фи", "фе"
Your /f/ is the one in phở (phở (noodle soup)).
the move: palatalised
Russian: evening · written "вь", "ве", "ви"
Your /v/ is the one in vui (happy, fun).
the move: palatalised
Russian: all · written "сь", "си", "се"
Your /s/ is the one in xin (to ask for; please).
the move: palatalised
Russian: winter · written "зь", "зи", "зе"
Your /z/ is the one in dạ (yes (polite)).
the move: palatalised
Russian: chemistry · written "хи", "хе"
Your /x/ is the one in không (no; not; zero).
the move: palatalised
Russian: day · written "нь", "ни", "не"
Your /n/ is the one in nước (water; country).
the move: palatalised
Russian: salt · written "ль", "ли", "ле"
Your /l/ is the one in làm (to do, to make).
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 không (no; not; zero).
the move: velar → retroflex
Russian: wife · written "ж"
Always hard too.
Your /ɣ/ is the one in gà (chicken).
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 đi (to go).
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 tôi (I).
the move: palatalised
Russian: white · written "бь", "би", "бе"
Your /ɓ/ is the one in ba (three; father).
the move: plosive → affricate
Russian: price · written "ц"
Always hard, even before и.
Your /t/ is the one in tôi (I).
the move: open-mid → 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 /ɛ/ is the one in mẹ (mother).
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 đêm (night).
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 xin (to ask for; please).
the move: voiced, palatalised
Russian: guitar · written "ги", "ге"
Your /k/ is the one in cá (fish).
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 = ɡ = ɡʲ → your k vs vs vs
- t = tʲ = t͡s → your t vs vs
- 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 ɓ vs
- f = fʲ → your f vs
- v = vʲ → your v vs
- z = zʲ → your z vs
- m = mʲ → your m vs
- n = nʲ → your n vs
- l = lʲ → your l vs
- e = ə → your e vs
- u = ʊ → your u vs
Genuinely new
Nothing in Vietnamese 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.
day
Closest thing you own: — but alveolar → dental, palatalised.
hand, arm
Trilled, as in Spanish perro.
Closest thing you own: — but nasal → trill.
door
Closest thing you own: — but nasal → trill, palatalised.
hour
Always soft, even before а.
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → affricate, alveolar → alveolo-palatal.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Vietnamese | Russian | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed, one tone per syllable | Stress-timed, heavily reduced |
| Stress | No lexical stress. Every syllable carries its own tone and its own full vowel, and none is reduced. What sounds like stress to an English ear is a syllable holding its tone longer or louder for emphasis, and grammatical words (đã, sẽ, được) being said lighter and faster than content words. | 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. |
| Pitch | lexical tone — pitch changes the word | No lexical tone. Intonation carries questions entirely on its own — Russian changes no words and moves nothing — with a sharp rise on the stressed syllable of whatever is being asked about, then a fall. Move the rise and you change the question. |
What you have that Russian doesn't
18 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 Vietnamese 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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