Hard and soft signs do not indicate any sounds. The hard sign performs a dividing function and is used after prefixes ending in
consonants, as well as before the root of a word starting with e, e, yu or i (pre-anniversary, disheveled, weaning, sarcastic). For example, it helps us distinguish between the words “sat” and “ate.” The soft sign indicates the softness of the previous consonant: bindweed, monkey,
earlier, seven. Sometimes a soft sign helps to distinguish a masculine noun from a feminine one: for example, the word “thing” is feminine, and “horsetail” is masculine. In addition, it often contributes to the creation of different forms of the same verb: meet and meet.
But in the Old Russian language, soft and hard signs (er and er) meant very real sounds. The first meant the short sound “i”, and the second meant the same short “o”. Even before Russia adopted Christianity and the development of writing, the language had full, short and nasal vowels, and they all performed different functions. By the time of the baptism of Rus', nasal vowels had disappeared from the Russian language, but the letters to denote them remained. The former short vowels ь and ъ in some words found themselves in strong positions (for example, under stress, before a cluster of several consonants, in adjacent syllables with other short
vowels or far from stressed syllables with any vowels) and thus turned into full vowels o or e, and in others - in weak positions (at the absolute end of a word,
in adjacent syllables with stressed vowels) and gradually simply disappeared from use. Previously, the hard sign was in the word “connect” instead of “o”, the soft sign in the word “day” instead of “e”. In modern Russian there is such a thing as “fluent vowels”. This is the legacy of Old Russian. This is why texts in Old Russian are so difficult to read.
Do we need hard and soft signs? It's hard to say. In the Czech language, for example, they have long been replaced by diacritics. Language is subject to change, and it is possible that sooner or later ъ and ь will cease to exist as letters of the alphabet.
Is the letter "Y" a vowel or a consonant, hard or soft? Phonetic analysis of the word.
This question is very often asked by students who need to parse a word according to all the rules of phonetics. You will get the answer to this a little further.
General information.
Before we talk about what kind of letter “th” is (soft or hard), you should find out why the letters of the Russian alphabet are generally divided according to such characteristics.
The fact is that each word has its own sound shell, which consists of individual sounds. It should be noted that the sound of a particular expression is completely correlated with its meaning. At the same time, different words and their forms have completely different sound design. Moreover, the sounds themselves have no meaning. However, they play a vital role in the Russian language. After all, thanks to them we can easily distinguish words.
Let's give an example
: [house] – [lady’] – [house’]; [m’el] – [m’el’], [tom] – [there], [house] – [volume].
Transcription.
Why do we need information about what type of letter “th” is (hard or soft)? When pronouncing a word, it is very important to correctly display the transcription that describes its sound. In such a system it is customary to use the following symbols:
– this designation is called square brackets. They must be placed to indicate transcription.
[´] is the accent. It is placed if the word has more than one syllable.
[b’] - a kind of comma is placed next to the consonant letter and denotes its softness.
By the way, during phonetic analysis of words the following symbol is often used – [j]. As a rule, it denotes the sound of the letter “th” (sometimes a symbol such as [th] is used).
Letter "y": consonant or vowel?
As you know, in the Russian language all sounds are divided into consonants and vowels. They are perceived and pronounced completely differently.
Vowel sounds are those sounds during the pronunciation of which air easily and freely passes through the mouth, without encountering any obstacles on its way. Moreover, you can pull them, you can shout with them. If you put your palm to your throat, you can quite easily feel the work of the vocal cords during the pronunciation of vowels. There are 6 stressed vowels in the Russian language, namely: [a], [e], [u], [s], [o] and [i].
Consonant sounds are those sounds during the pronunciation of which the air encounters an obstacle on its way, namely a bow or a gap. Their appearance determines the nature of the sounds. As a rule, a gap is formed when pronouncing [s], [w], [z] and [z]. In this case, the tip of the tongue approaches the upper or lower teeth. The presented consonants can be drawn out (for example, [z-z-z], [z-z-z]). As for the stop, such a barrier is formed due to the closure of the speech organs. The air, or rather its flow, abruptly overcomes it, due to which the sounds are energetic and brief. That is why they are called explosive. By the way, it is impossible to pull them (try it yourself: [p], [b], [t], [d]).
In addition to the above consonants, the Russian language also has the following: [m], [y], [v], [f], [g], [l], [r], [ch], [ts], [x] . As you can see, there are many more of them than vowels.
Voiceless and voiced sounds.
By the way, many consonant sounds form pairs of deafness and voicedness: [k] - [g], [b] - [p], [z] - [c], [d] - [t], [f] - [v], etc. In total, there are 11 such pairs in the Russian language. However, there are sounds that do not have pairs on this basis. These include: [y], [p], [n], [l], [m] are unpaired voiced ones, and [ch] and [ts] are unpaired voiceless ones.
Soft and hard consonants.
As you know, consonant letters differ not only in sonority or, conversely, deafness, but also in softness and hardness. This property is the second most important feature of sounds.
So, is the letter “th” hard or soft? To answer this question, you should consider each sign separately:
When pronouncing soft consonants, the entire tongue moves slightly forward, and its middle part rises slightly.
During the pronunciation of hard consonants, the entire tongue is literally pulled back.
It should be especially noted that many consonant letters form pairs with each other based on characteristics such as softness and hardness: [d] - [d'], [p] - [p'], etc. There are 15 such pairs in total. However, there are also sounds that do not have pairs on this basis. Which hard letters are unpaired? These include the following - [w], [f] and [c]. As for the unpaired soft ones, these are [sch’], [h’] and [th’].
Designation on the letter.
Now you know the information about whether the letter “th” is hard or soft. But here a new question arises: “How is the softness of such sounds indicated in writing?” Completely different methods are used for this:
The letters “e”, “yu”, “e”, “ya” after consonants (not counting “zh”, “sh”, and “ts”) indicate that these consonants are soft. Let's give an example: uncle - [d'a'd'a], aunt - [t'o't'a].
The letter “i” after consonants (not counting “zh”, “sh”, and “ts”) indicates that these consonants are soft. Let's give an example: cute - [m'i'lyy'], leaf - [l'ist], threads - [n'i'tk'i].
The soft sign (“b”) after consonants (not counting “zh” and “sh”) is an indicator of grammatical form. It also indicates that the consonants are soft. Examples: distance – [dal’], stranded – [m’el’], request – [proz’ba].
As you can see, the softness of consonant sounds in writing is conveyed not by individual letters, but by their combinations with the vowels “e”, “yu”, “e”, “ya”, as well as a soft sign. That is why, when analyzing a word phonetically, experts recommend paying attention to neighboring symbols.
As for the vowel letter “th”, it is always soft. In this regard, in transcription it is usually denoted as follows: [th’]. That is, the comma symbol, indicating the softness of the sound, must always be inserted. [ш'], [ч'] also obey the same rule.
Let's summarize.
As you can see, there is nothing difficult in correctly performing a phonetic analysis of a word. To do this, you just need to know what vowels and consonants are, unvoiced and voiced, as well as soft and hard. For a better understanding of how to format a transcription, we will provide several detailed examples.
1. The word "hero". Consists of two syllables, with the 2nd being stressed. Let's do the analysis:
G - [g’] - voiced, consonant and soft.
p - [p] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and hard.
o - [o] - stressed vowel.
th - [th’] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and soft.
Total: 5 letters and 5 sounds.
2. The word "trees". Consists of three syllables, with the 2nd being stressed. Let's do the analysis:
D - [d’] - voiced, consonant and soft.
e - [i] - unstressed vowel.
p - [p’] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and soft.
e - [e´] - stressed vowel.
in - [v’] - voiced, consonant and soft
b - [–]
e - [th’] - voiced, consonant, unpaired and soft and [e] - vowel, unstressed;
v - [f] - deaf,
One person who had never seen a giraffe was long assured that the giraffe has a very long neck. But the man didn’t want to believe it. “It can’t be,” he repeated. “It can’t possibly be.” In the end, they took him to the zoo, brought him to a cage with a giraffe and said: “Well, do you see what kind of neck he has?” The man clasped his hands and exclaimed: “It can’t be!”
(1) No body can be solid at a very high temperature. (2) The sun is gaseous, and the gas moves continuously at a temperature of thousands,deities and hundreds of thousands of degrees. (3) The Sun has existed for billions of years, and during this time it has not remained calm for a second. (4) Storms of terrible force are constantly raging on the Sun, before which a fierce earthly hurricane will seem like the breath of a baby.
Which word or combination of words is NOT a predicate in one of the sentences or in one of the parts of a complex sentence in the text?
1) are raging (sentence 4)
2) there was no left (sentence 3)
3) cannot be solid (sentence 1)
4) gaseous (sentence 2)
Compose sentences with homogeneous members, using any of the highlighted words in different meanings. 1.Which caravan cannotmove?2. Which ruler don't use it for drawing? 3.From which machine gun can't you shoot?
1.Find a phrase with a passive participle.A. A smiling clown. B. a tailored coat. C. A barking dog. D. Falling rain.
2. Find a phrase with the past perfect participle
A.Attracting attention.B.burnt to the ground.C.Muffled by sounds.D.Seeing the target
3. Find a verb from which a passive participle cannot be formed.
A.Throw.B.growl.C.Build.D.Illustrate
4. Find the participial phrase among the phrases.
A.Fresh seeds.B.Painted floor.C.Collected by the children.D.Flying eagle.
5. Finish the sentence: “The participial phrase is highlighted in the letter with commas, if it is worth...”
A. in front of the word being defined. B. after the word being defined. C. far from the word being defined. D. close to the word being defined.
6.Find a sentence with a full participle.
A. He was seriously furious. B. it was an old, abandoned estate. C. The estate had been abandoned for a long time. D. All the places were already occupied
7. Finish the sentence: “There cannot be a participle in a sentence...”
A.Definition.B.predicate.C.definition or predicate.D.circumstance
8.What suffix cannot be in participles?
A.in.B.t,v.Ann.G.em.
9 In which participle is the letter I missing from the suffix?
A.drinking.B.dressing up.and.sinning.D.depending...on
10.Which Participle in the Suffix is missing I?
A.izha...em.B.Audible.B.Subtracted...my.D.Vabl...ed.
Date added: 2013-01-11;
This is the second lesson on the alphabet and rules for reading letters in English. In this lesson I will tell you about the next four consonant letters.
The lesson, like the previous one, will not be long, but I strongly recommend paying attention to the intricacies of reading letters "Hh" and rules for reading the letter " Gg".
Letter Gg
Gg[ʤi:]- the seventh letter of the English alphabet. Has two basic reading rules.
1. According to the basic rule of reading, it is no different from Russian "G".
This rule is valid if:
I. Letter Gg comes before vowels Aa, Oo, Uu ;
Gas- - gas; petrol
Gold- - gold
Gun- - weapon (any firearm)
II. Letter Gg comes before (any) consonant;
Green- - green
III. Letter Gg stands at the end of a word;
Big- - big
2. Before vowels Ee , II, Yy reads like "J" .
If we take it globally, the original of this sound is softer than the combination “J”. But there is no point in worrying too much about this. This option will do temporarily.
Page - - page
Giant- ["ʤaiənt]- giant
Gymnastics - [ʤim"næstiks]- gymnastics
BUT: In words of French origin, the letter Gg can be read as "AND"
Garage - ["gærɑ:ʓ]- garage
3. At the beginning and at the end of words in letter combinations gn letter Gg falls out.
Gnaw- - gnaw
Sign - - symbol; signature
4. Letter combination gh.
Be careful! This letter combination can produce a sound [g] or sound [f] , and may even be silent (unreadable). Therefore, to be sure of the correct pronunciation with such a letter combination, check the words using a dictionary.
Ghost- - ghost
High- - high
Laugh- - laughter
Letter Hh
Hh - the eighth letter of the English alphabet.
Firstly: I can confidently say that you will not see it before a consonant (excluding abbreviations)
Secondly: This letter is read only if it is followed by a vowel. In all other cases it is mute.
Thirdly: Letter combinations sh, ch, ph, th, gh create extraneous sounds. We already know two of them (digraph ch and letter combination gh) . We'll look at the rest as we study the corresponding letters.
1. It always reads like [h]. This sound has no Russian analogue. Many, making a grave mistake, replace this sound with a Russian sound X.
The sound [h] is an exhalation. Free sound that comes from the chest without encountering any obstacles, unlike X.
House- - house
2. In combination wh + o letter Ww falls out.
Who - - Who
In other cases, the letter appears in such a letter combination Hh .
When - - When
Letter Jj
Jj[ʤei]- the tenth letter of the English alphabet.
1. Always read as [ ʤ ], which can be equated to Russian "J".
Jump- [ʤʌmp]- jump
