English Pronunciation & AccentExercisesFor Russian Speakers
Includes Video, Audio files & Practice Recording Tools
Hi there,
So, your first language is Russian and you want to improve your English accent and pronunciation. Is that right?
I recently put together this helpful page specifically for Russian speakers who are looking for English pronunciation training or accent reduction.
You’ll find out what the most difficult areas of English pronunciation are for Russian speakers and what areas affect English clarity the most.You’ll listen to other Russian speakers, record your own speech, compare it to a native speakers recording and more.
This page gives you a little introduction into English pronunciation training and how to improve your English accent. Remember that to make real changes, most people need help from an expert and regular practise : )
What are the typical English Pronunciation problems for Russian Speakers? ManyRussian speakers have difficulty pronouncing the English consonant sounds /w/, /v/, /r/ & ‘th’. Russian has a quarter of the vowels that English does so many English vowels are challenging. Word stress is often flatter and more even than an English native speaker.
Top 8 English Pronunciation Problems For Russian Speakers
Over the past 15 years I’ve worked with hundreds of Russian speaking professionals to help them improve their English pronunciation skills. They wanted to speak English more clearly so listeners could understand them easily. Some where already clear and wanted to sound more like a local.
The 8 areas below are typical problem areas for Russian speakers. Some of these are relatively straight forward and easy for them to correct and some were very challenging and took a lot of dedicated, systematic training and practice.
Use the questions in the checklist below to check these areas in your English pronunciation.
You might not have realised if you’re making these errors or not. That’s OK. It takes time to become aware of your pronunciation and to get control of your mouth and muscles.
The recording tools below will help you with becoming more aware of your problem areas.
Record your own speech to check for errors further down the page!
The Top 8 Problem Areas For Russian Speakers And Checklist:
1. Consonants /w/ and /v/
Check: Are you making /w/ & /v/correctly? Many Russian Speakers confuse these two sounds becausethey aren’t clearly distinguished between in Russian.
2. Vowel /oʊ/ like in ‘note’
Do you pronounce ‘note’ more like ‘not’ or ‘nought’? Russian only has 5 or 6 vowels. English has 20! This means that Russians often mispronounce some English double vowels like/oʊ/.
3. Vowel‘er’ /ɜː/ like in ‘hurt’ and/æ/ like in ‘hat’
Do you distinguish correctly between the vowels in ‘hut’, ‘hurt’, ‘hat’ and ‘heart’? Russian speakers tend to slot in Russian vowels which results in mispronunciation of these vowels.
4. Voicing. Many Russian speakers add voice to the sound /p/ so it sounds more like /b/.
Do you pronounce /p/ like in ‘pig’ more like /b/ like in ‘big’? In English the sounds /p/, /t/ and /k/ are very light, without voice and with a little puff of air. Russian speakers often make /t/ and /k/ slightly voiced too.
5. Word stress
Do you feel like the pitch and rhythm of your English is flatter than a native speakers? Each multi-syllable word in English has 1 stressed syllable. Using word stress makes words easy for your listeners to recognise and makes the ‘rhythm’ English.
6. Weak vowels
Many Russian speakers make strong vowels in English words where there should be a weak vowel. For example in the words ‘today’ and ‘complete’ – the letter ‘o’ is pronounced as a weak vowel but many Russian speakers pronounce it as a full ‘o’ vowel. The letter ‘o’ in ‘today’ and ‘complete’ is weak, more like ‘uh’, so it’s/təˈdeɪ/ (listen here)and/kəmˈpliːt/ (listen here).
7. Strong /r/ sound.
Are you making a Russian trilled or tapped /r/ sound in English words? English /r/ is very different to Russian /r/. In English the tongue tip is slightly curled but it doesn’t touch the roof of the mouth and there is no friction created for the sound. Doing this doesn’t affect how clear your English is – so it’s not important to change if your goal is to develop clearer English.
If your goal is to speak more like a native English speaker, then this is one you will want to change, especially if you are aiming for British or Australian English.
In British and Australian English, we only pronounce /r/ when it is before a vowel sound. For example, we don’t pronounce /r/ in ‘cart’ and we do pronounce /r/ in ‘carrot’. So if you have a strong /r/ and you are pronouncing it in all words that have the letter /r/, these words can sound very different to a local.
8. Consonant sound ‘th’.
Do you sometimes use /s/ or /z/ instead of ‘th’? For example you might say ‘sink’ instead of ‘think’. There are no ‘th’ sounds in Russian, so many Russian speakers use /s/ for unvoiced ‘th’ and /z/ for voiced ‘th’.
Doing this doesn’t affect how clear your English is – so it’s not important to change if your goal is to develop clearer English. If your goal is to sound more like a native English speaking and reduce your accent, then ‘th’ is important to change because ‘th’ is one of the most common sounds in English.
Scroll down to LISTEN & RECORD!
Record Your Speech & Listen To Russian Speakers
Let’s start by looking more closely at the sound /v/, the diphthong vowel /oʊ/ & word stress.
Changing pronunciation takes effort, awareness and control. These exercises will help you become more aware of what your problem areas are.
Correcting pronunciation and improving your English accent can be made easier with specialised training.For training specifically for Russian speakers, that guides you through correcting all these problem areas check out ouraward winning English Pronunciation Course for Russian Speakers.
