Paired soft sounds. Voiced and voiceless consonants

Phonetics is a branch of the science of language in which sounds and their alternations, as well as stress, intonation, and syllable division are studied.

Graphic arts is a branch of the science of language that studies the shapes of the letters of the alphabet and their relationship with the sounds of speech.

Modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters, 10 of which are intended to indicate vowel sounds and are accordingly called vowels. 21 consonant letters are used to represent consonant sounds. In addition, in modern Russian there are two letters that have no sounds are not indicated: ъ(hard sign), b(soft sign).

Vowels and consonants

All sounds of the Russian language are divided into vowels and consonants.

1. Vowel sounds- These are sounds that are formed with the participation of the voice. There are six of them in Russian: [a], [e], [i], [o], [u], [s].

2. Consonants- These are sounds that are formed with the participation of voice and noise or noise alone.

A) Consonant sounds are divided into hard and soft. Most hard and soft consonants form pairs according to hardness-softness: [b] - [b′], [c] - [c′], [d] - [g′], [d] - [d′], [z] - [z′], [j] - [k'], [l] - [l'], [m] - [m'], [n] - [n'], [p] - [p'], [p] - [p'], [s] - [s′], [t] - [t′], [f] - [f′], [x] - [x′] (the apostrophe at the top right indicates softness consonant sound). For example, bow - [bow] and hatch - [l′uk].

b) Some consonant sounds do not have correlative pairs of hardness-softness, that is, they exist in the language unpaired hard consonants[zh], [w], [ts] (i.e. they are always only solid) and unpaired soft consonants[sh ′], [th], [h] (i.e. they are always only soft).

Notes:

for sounds [й], [ч] it is not customary to indicate softness with an apostrophe, although in some textbooks it is indicated;
the sound [ш ′] is indicated in writing by the letter sch;
the overbar indicates double (long) sound. For example, cheek - [sh ′ika], thicket - [bowl ′a], bath - [van a], cash desk - [kas a]. In some textbooks they indicate long consonants like this: [van:a] - bath.

V) Consonant sounds formed with the participation of voice and noise are called sonorous(for example, [d], [d′], [z], [z′], etc.); if only noise is involved in the formation of sounds, then such sounds are called deaf consonants (for example, [t], [t′], [s], [s′], etc.). Most voiced and voiceless consonants in Russian form voiced-voiceless pairs: [b] - [p], [b′] - [p′], [c] - [f], [v′] - [f′], [g] - [k], [g′] - [k′], [d] - [t], [d′] - [t′], [z] - [s], [z′] - [s′], [g] - [w]. Wed: beat - drink, year - cat, live - sew.

G) The sounds [th], [l], [l′], [m], |m′], [n], [n′], [р], [р′] do not form a correlative pair with voiceless consonants, therefore they are unpaired voiced(unpaired voiced consonants are also called sonorous, these are sounds in the formation of which both voice and noise participate). Conversely, voiceless consonants that do not form pairs with voiced ones are unpaired deaf. These are the sounds [h], [ts], [x], [x′].

3. In a stream of speech, the sound of one sound can be likened to the sound of another sound. This phenomenon is called assimilation. So, in the word life, the sound [z], standing next to the soft [n′], also softens, and we get the sound [z′]. Thus, the pronunciation of the word life is written like this: [zhyz′n′]. Sound convergence is also possible for sounds that are paired in terms of sonority and deafness. Thus, voiced consonants in position before deaf ones and at the end of a word are similar in sound to paired deaf ones. Therefore, it happens stun consonants. For example, a boat is a lo[t]ka, a fairy tale is a jump[s]ka, a cart is a vo[s]. The opposite phenomenon is also possible, when voiceless consonants in the position before voiced ones also become voiced, that is misspoke. For example, mowing is ko[z′]ba, asking is about [z′]ba.

Indication of softness of consonants in writing

In Russian, the softness of consonants is indicated in the following ways:

1. Using a letterb(soft sign) at the end of a word and in the middle between consonants: benefit - [pol′za], elk - [los′], etc.

Note. The soft sign does not indicate softness of consonants in the following cases:

a) if it serves to separate consonants, the second of which th(yot): leaves - fox[t′ya], linen - be[l′yo];

b) to distinguish grammatical categories: rye (3 cl., female form) - knife (2 cl., m. r.);

c) to distinguish the forms of words (after hissing ones): read (2 sheets, singular), cut (form imperative mood), help ( indefinite form verb-la), as well as adverbs: jump, back.

2. Through lettersAnd,e, e, yu, I, indicating the softness of the preceding consonant sound and conveying the vowel sounds [i], [e], [o], [u], [a]: forest - [l'es], honey - [m'ot], lil - [l′il], hatch - [l′uk], crumpled - [m′al].

3. Using subsequent soft consonants: cog - [v′in′t′ik], plum - [s′l′iva].

Sound meaning of letters e, e, yu, i

1. The letters e, ё, yu, i can meantwo sounds: [ye], [yo], [yu], [ya]. This happens in the following cases:

at the beginning of a word: for example, spruce - [ye]l, hedgehog - [yo]zh, yula - [yu]la, pit - [ya]ma;
after a vowel sound: washes - mo[ye]t, sings - po[yo]t, give - yes[y]t, bark - la[ya]t;
after separating ь,ъ: eat - eat [e]m, drink - drink [yo]t, pour - l[y]t, zealous - zealous.

In addition, after the separation b the letter will represent two sounds And: nightingales - nightingale [yi].

2. The letters e, e, yu, i indicate the softness of the preceding consonant in the position after consonants, paired in hardness-softness: fur - [m′eh], carried - [n′os], hatch - [l′uk], kneaded - [m′al].

Memo:

The sounds [th], [l], [m], [n], [r] are voiced (do not have a voiced-voiceless pair)
The sounds [x], [ts], [ch], [sh ′] are dull (do not have a hardness-softness pair)
The sounds [zh], [sh], [ts] are always hard.
The sounds [th], [h], [sh ′] are always soft.

Phonetic analysis of a word (sound-letter analysis of a word)- this is an analysis of a word, which consists in characterizing syllable structure And sound composition of the word; phonetic analysis of a word involves elements of graphic analysis. Word for phonetic analysis in school textbooks it is designated by the number 1: for example, earth 1 .

When conducting phonetic analysis of a word, it is necessary to pronounce the word out loud. You cannot automatically convert alphabetic notation into audio, this leads to errors. It must be remembered that it is not the letters that are characterized, but the sounds of the word.

Phonetic order(sound-letter) word analysis (according to school tradition):

1. Write it down given word, divide it into syllables, orally indicate the number of syllables.

2. Put emphasis on the word.

3. Write it down phonetic transcription words (we write the word in letters in a column, opposite each letter we write the sound in square brackets).

4. Describe the sounds (in front of each sound we put a dash and write its characteristics, separating them with commas):

characteristics of a vowel sound: indicate that the sound is a vowel; stressed or unstressed;

characteristics of a consonant sound: indicate that the sound is consonant; hard or soft, voiced or dull. You can also indicate paired or unpaired in terms of hardness-softness, sonority-dullness.

5. Indicate the number of sounds and letters.

Phonetic samples(sound-letter) word parsing(a basic level of)

Earth - earth
z[z′] - consonant, soft, voiced
e[i] - vowel, unstressed
m [m] - consonant, hard, voiced
l[l′] - consonant, soft, voiced
e[e] - vowel, stressed
__________
5 letters, 5 sounds

They turn black - they turn black
h[h] - consonant, soft, unvoiced
e[i] - vowel, unstressed
r[r] - consonant, hard, voiced
n[n′] - consonant, soft, voiced
e[e] - vowel, stressed
yu[y] - consonant, soft, voiced
[u] - vowel, unstressed
t[t] - consonant, hard, deaf.
___________
7 letters, 8 sounds

Exercise 17, p. 10

17. Help the cat and dog put letters that represent voiced consonant sounds into one group, and letters that represent voiceless consonant sounds into another group. Connect the letters of each group with lines.

Deaf→ h → x → w → s → t → c → k → w → p → f

Voiced→ j → l → n → r → z → m → d → b → g → g → c

Say the sounds that can be represented by highlighted letters

h- [h’] m- [mm'], th- [th’] T- [t], [t’]

Exercise 18, p. 10

18. Read. Fill in the missing word in the sentence.

It's so cold outside -
I’m like an icicle, completely frozen.

L. Yakovlev

Underline the letters in the highlighted word that represent voiceless paired consonant sounds.

Exercise 19, p. eleven

19. Read. Fill in the missing words that are the names of the consonant sounds.

1. A voiceless consonant is made up of noise.
2. A voiced consonant consists of noise and voice.

Exercise 20, p. eleven

20. Fill in the “house” with the missing letters indicating consonant sounds that are paired in deafness and voicedness.

Select and write down words that end with these letters.

Exercise 21, p. eleven

21. Find in the textbook’s spelling dictionary words with a consonant paired in deafness and voicedness at the end of the word. Write down a few words.

Alphabet t, suddenly, city, factory, pencil, class, hammer, frost, people, lunch, scarf, drawing, student, language.

Exercise 22, p. 12

22. Read. What rule are we talking about? Why are the consonants so named?

Paired consonants- the most dangerous!
Basically you check them -
Place a vowel next to it!

We are talking about the rule of spelling words with a paired deafness-voiced consonant sound at the root of the word. Such consonants are called "dangerous" because we can choose not to correct letter, denoting a paired voiced-voiced consonant sound at the root of a word before another paired consonant. These are "dangerous" places, or spelling.

Exercise 23, p. 12

23. Read. Insert the missing letters.

1. There will be bread b, there will be lunch. 2. If there was a pie, there would be an eater. 3. He who is lazy is also sleepy. 4. Ugly in face, but good in mind. 5. The bear is clumsy, and hefty.

Orally select test words for words with missing letters.

Hle b (bread), lunch (dinners), pie (pies), eater (eaters), lazy (lazy), sleepy (sleepy), ugly (ugly), good (good), bear (bears), clumsy (clumsy) .

Exercise 24, p. 12

24. Read.

The frost creaks. The frost is angry.
And the snow is dry and hard.
And the elm was cold, and the oak was frozen.
The trees were frozen through.

G. Volzhina

Choose the correct letter from brackets for each word and underline it. Write these words down.

Moro z, snow, elm, chill, oak, frozen, through and through.

Exercise 25, p. 13

25. Read the lines from the American song translated by Leonid Yakhnin.

Pyro old lady Fogg bakes
In the kitchen by the stove,
And the dog is a bulldog named Dog
He goes to water the flowers.
Old Lady Fogg takes the pie
And I have tea with milk,
And the dog is a bulldog named Dog -
In it next to the table.

What do you think is true in these lines?

Is it true:
Old Lady Fogg bakes a pie
In the kitchen by the stove...
Old Lady Fogg takes the pie
And tea with milk...
The lines about the bulldog are a tall tale.

Underline the spelling patterns in the words based on the rules you have learned.

Exercise 26, p. 13

26. Read. Write down the words, replacing the highlighted sounds with letters.

cha[sh]ka - cha sh ka uká[s]ka - ukáz ka
ló[sh]ka - spoon ka ká[s]ka - kás ka
lá[f]ka - láv ka ló[k]ti - lók ti
kó[f]ta - kofta kó[k]ti - cóg ti
shá[p]ka - hat ka ló[t]ka - boat ka
fur[p]ka - fur coat cheek[t]ka - brush

Be prepared to prove that you spelled the words correctly.

Cha sh ka (cup), spoon ka (spoon), lav ka (bench), coffee ta - vocabulary word, you must remember, hat (cap), fur coat (fur coats), pointer (pointer), helmet (helmet), elbows (elbows), claws (claws), boat (boat), brush (brush ).

Exercise 27, p. 14

27. Read. Underline the consonants whose spelling needs to be checked.

But g ti, riddle, slippery, carrot, carrot, timid, guard, robok, slide, nail, guard, make a riddle.

Find a test word for each word being tested. Write it down according to the example.

(Ró b ok) ro b cue, (side and it) side and ka, (zaga d yat) zaga d ka, (but G ot) but G ty, (how much h how much h cue, (carrot V ny) carrot V ka.

Exercise 28, p. 14

28. Read it. Name the fairy tales.

1. Zolushka, while running away from the palace, she lost her crystal slipper.
2. B elos tender I became very friendly with the seven dwarves.

Fill in the missing words. Underline the letters in them that indicate paired consonant sounds in terms of deafness and voicedness.

Exercise 29, p. 15

29. Choose a single-root test word for each word. Write it down according to the example.

Du b ki - oak trees, berry ka - berries.
Dexterous is dexterous, close is close.
Spoon - spoon, pin - pin.
Pras ba - to ask, watchman - to guard.
Polite - polite, good - good.

Underline the letters in the words whose spelling you checked.

Exercise 30, p. 15

30. Read the riddle. Fill in the missing letters and the word. Draw the answer.

I'm round, I'm smooth
And the cue tastes pleasantly sweet.
Every toddler knows
What's my name?

Exercise 31, p. 15

31. Read. Insert the missing letters.

1. Sli V ki, golu b tsy, pyro and ki, aquarius h .
2. Suddenly G, blue h ka, sapo and ki, ruba w ka.

Unnecessary words - diver, all of a sudden, since the spelling is at the end of the word, and in the rest - at the root of the word.

Underline the extra word in each group of words. Explain your answer.

Exercise 32, p. 16

32. Read. Select the desired letter and put it into words.

B? P?
Oak, screw, mistake, button, flexible cue.
G? TO?
Iceberg, circus, easy cue, south, soft cue.
IN? F?
Island, giraffe, jacket, catch cue, beak.
D? T?
Yod, look, cage, riddle, mole.
AND? Sh?
Siskin, mitten, ruff, frog, book.
Z? WITH?
Cargo, sauce, sled, mask, tale.

Exercise 33, p. 16

33. Read. Insert the missing letters.

1. Each tree has its own fruit d. A boat floats down the river T.
2. In the boy’s hands there is a T. There is a deep stream in the village d.
3. Luna blossoms are beautiful in summer G. Green lu grew in the garden bed To.
4. There is a flower in the flowerbed With scarlet bush h.

What is interesting about words with missing letters? In the last sentence, underline the main clauses.

In each pair, the words are pronounced the same but spelled differently.

Exercise 34, p. 17

34. Read. Complete the tasks given in the table.

Explain how you selected test words for words with an unstressed vowel sound and for words with a paired consonant sound in the root of the words.

We selected such test words for words with an unstressed vowel sound, so that the unstressed vowel sound would become stressed at the root. For a word with a paired consonant sound in the root of the word in terms of deafness and voicedness, we selected a cognate word so that the paired consonant sound in the root was before the vowel sound.

Exercise 35, p. 17

35. Read the riddles. Fill in the missing letters in the answers.

1. Sam hu d, the head is like a pound, as soon as it hits, it will become strong. (M o l o t o To)
2. Not snow, not ice, but sulfur bromine will remove trees. (AND Not j)

Underline the spelling patterns in the words.

Exercise 36, p. 18

36. Read. Title the text.

January

I love you, I January!
For me you are the month I ts the best -
M O l O doy, b O lshoy, skr And puffy,
Z O l O as clear as amber b!
Sun, sleep G, O drive, m O roses -
Flame white b e ryo h!

S. Kozlov

Do you agree with the author's opinion? What does the word amber mean?

Amber is a fossilized resin, yellow-brown or golden in color.

Which of the highlighted spellings can you not explain? Why? Underline these spellings.

We cannot explain the underlined spellings, because these are unstressed vowel sounds at the root, which cannot be verified. The spelling of such words must either be memorized or checked in a spelling dictionary.

Exercise 37, p. 18

37. Read. Insert the missing letters.

Le dark frost, big snowdrift, silvery frost, Snow Maiden, snowfall, Santa Claus, fluffy snowflakes, soft snow, skates, smooth ice, snowman.

What theme connects these words and word combinations?

The theme of winter connects these words and combinations of words.

Compose an oral text on this topic.

It was slightly frosty outside. Yesterday's snowfall covered the city in soft snow, the roofs of the houses sparkled with silvery frost. The blizzard created large snowdrifts.
The children could not stay at home. Having put on new skates, we painted patterns on the smooth ice. The kids played snowballs and made a snowman.
Fluffy snowflakes swirled merrily, like children in a New Year's round dance with Father Frost and Snow Maiden.

Voiced and voiceless consonants

4.7 (94%) of 10 voters

All consonant sounds in the Russian language are divided according to several criteria, including the principle of voicedness and deafness. This pronunciation characteristic influences whether the voice is used when pronouncing a sound or not. Studying this topic is very important for understanding the basic principles of the phonetic system, because voiceless consonants are a very important part of it.

What is a voiceless consonant?

Voiceless consonant sounds are produced only by noise, without the participation of the voice. When pronouncing them vocal cords completely relax, the larynx does not vibrate.

Paired and unpaired voiceless consonants

Most sounds that fall into this category have a voiced pair. What sounds these are, you can find out from the table “Voiceless consonant sounds in the Russian language.”

Thus, in the Russian language there are 11 voiceless consonants that have a voiced pair. But there are also unpaired ones - these are sounds such as [x], [x’], [h’] and [sch’].

They cannot become voiced regardless of position.

A special mnemonic phrase helps to remember all the voiceless consonants that exist in the Russian language: “Styopka, do you want shchetc?” - Ugh!". But it will not help to remember their pairing by hardness-softness, since voiceless consonants that have a pair are presented in it only in one variety - either hard or soft.

Consonant devoicing rule

In the Russian language, there are often cases when a voiced consonant is written in writing, but in speech it turns into a dull consonant. This happens, for example, when voiced letter appears at the very end of the word, as in the word mushroom, the transcription of which will look like [flu].

Due to the fact that voiced consonants are deafened at the end, difficulties often arise when reproducing such words in writing. However, there is an easy way to check which letter to use: you need to change the word so that the consonant appears before the vowel, for example, mushroom - mushroom. Then it will immediately become clear what needs to be written. The same applies to cases when there is a voiceless consonant at the end, and in writing it is voiced “by general rule" You can check which letter is written in the same way: krik - krik, lot - lota.

Voiced consonants located in positions at the beginning and in the middle of a word can also be deafened if they are followed by a voiceless consonant. This is easy to understand using an example: booth [booth].

What have we learned?

Voiceless consonant sounds are those sounds in the formation of which the larynx does not vibrate, that is, the voice does not participate. They consist only of noise. Most voiceless consonants have a voiced pair, but there are four unpaired sound of this type are [x], [x’], [h’] and [w’]. Due to the rule of deafening consonants during pronunciation, those consonants that are voiced in writing go into their voiceless pair. This happens if they appear at the end of a word, and also when another voiceless consonant precedes them.

In this lesson we will learn to distinguish between voiced and voiceless consonant sounds and denote them in writing with consonant letters. Let's find out which consonants are called paired and unpaired according to their voicing - deafness, sonorant and hissing.

Voiced and voiceless consonants

Let's remember how speech sounds are born. When a person begins to speak, he exhales air from his lungs. It runs down the windpipe into the narrow larynx, where special muscles are located - the vocal cords. If a person pronounces consonants, he closes his mouth (at least a little), which causes noise. But consonants make different noises.

Let's conduct an experiment: cover our ears and pronounce the sound [p], and then the sound [b]. When we pronounced the sound [b], the ligaments became tense and began to tremble. This trembling turned into a voice. There was a slight ringing in my ears.

You can conduct a similar experiment by placing your hands on the neck on the right and left sides and pronouncing the sounds [d] and [t]. The sound [d] is pronounced much louder, more sonorous. Scientists call these sounds sonorous, and sounds that consist only of noise - deaf.

Paired consonant sounds in terms of voicedness and deafness

Let's try to divide the sounds into two groups according to the method of pronunciation. Let's populate phonetic houses in the city of sounds. Let's agree: dull sounds will live on the first floor, and voiced sounds will live on the second floor. Residents of the first house:

[b]	[d]	[h]	[G]	[V]	[and]
[P]	[T]	[With]	[To]	[f]	[w]

These consonant sounds are called paired by sonority - deafness.

Rice. 1. Paired voiced and voiceless consonants ()

They are very similar to each other - real “twins”, they are pronounced almost identically: the lips form the same way, the tongue moves the same way. But they also have pairs of softness and hardness. Let's add them to the house.

[b]	[b’]	[d]	[d’]	[h]	[z’]	[G]	[G']	[V]	[V']	[and]
[P]	[P']	[T]	[T']	[With]	[With']	[To]	[To']	[f]	[f’]	[w]

The sounds [zh] and [sh] do not have paired soft sounds, they always hard. And they are also called sizzling sounds.

All these sounds are indicated by letters:

[b]	[b’]
[P]	[P']
[d]	[d’]
[T]	[T']
[h]	[z’]
[With]	[With']
[G]	[G']
[To]	[To']
[V]	[V']
[f]	[f’]
[and]
[w]

Unpaired voiced consonants

But not all consonant sounds and letters form pairs. Those consonants that do not have pairs are called unpaired. Let's put unpaired consonant sounds in our houses.

To the second house - unpairedvoiced consonants sounds:

Let us remind you that the sound [th’] always just soft. Therefore, he will live alone in our house. These sounds are represented in writing by letters:

[l]	[l’]	(ale)
[m]	[m’]
[n]	[n’]
[R]	[R']
	[th’]	(and short)

The sounds of the second house are also called sonorous , because they are formed with the help of the voice and almost without noise, they are very sonorous. The word “sonorant” is translated from the Latin “sonorus” meaning sonorous.

Unpaired voiceless consonants

We will put you in the third house unpaired voiceless consonants sounds:

[X]

[X']

[ts]

[h’]

[sch']

Let us remember that the sound [ts] is always solid, and [h’] and [sch’] - always soft. Unpaired voiceless consonants are indicated in writing by letters:

[X]	[X']
[ts]
	[h’]
	[sch']

Sounds [h’], [h’] - sizzling sounds.

So we populated our city with consonant sounds and letters. Now it’s immediately clear why there are 21 consonant letters and 36 sounds.

Rice. 2. Voiced and voiceless consonants ()

Consolidating knowledge in practice

Let's complete the tasks.

1. Consider the pictures and turn one word into another, replacing only one sound. Hint: remember pairs of consonant sounds.

d points - point

b glasses - kidney

w ar - heat

fishing rod - duck

2. There are riddles, the meaning of which lies in the knowledge of consonant sounds, they are called charades. Try to guess them:

1) With a deaf consonant I pour into the field,
With the ringing one - I myself am ringing to the expanse . (Kolos - voice)

2) With a deaf person - she cuts the grass,
With a voiced sound, it eats the leaves. (Scythe - goat)

3) With “em” - pleasant, golden, very sweet and fragrant.
With the letter “el” it appears in winter, but disappears in spring . (Honey - ice)

In order to develop the ability to pronounce certain sounds, especially hissing ones, they learn tongue twisters. The tongue twister is told slowly at first, and then the pace is accelerated. Let's try to learn tongue twisters:

Six little mice rustle in the reeds.
The hedgehog has a hedgehog, the snake has a squeeze.
Two puppies were chewing a brush in the corner, cheek to cheek.

So, today we learned that consonant sounds can be voiced and unvoiced and how these sounds are indicated in writing.

Andrianova T.M., Ilyukhina V.A. Russian language 1. M.: Astrel, 2011. ().
Buneev R.N., Buneeva E.V., Pronina O.V. Russian language 1. M.: Ballas. ().
Agarkova N.G., Agarkov Yu.A. Textbook for teaching literacy and reading: ABC. Academic book/textbook.

Fictionbook.ru ().
Deafnet.ru ().
Samouchka.com.ua ().

Andrianova T.M., Ilyukhina V.A. Russian language 1. M.: Astrel, 2011. Pp. 38, ex. 2; Page 39, ex. 6; Page 43, ex. 4.
Count how many voiced consonants and how many voiceless consonants are in a word unsatisfactory ? (Voiced consonants - 9 - N, D, V, L, V, R, L, N, Y, various - 6, voiceless consonants - 2 - T, T, various - 1.).
Read the proverb: « Know how to speak at the right time, and be silent at the right time.” Name the letters that represent voiced consonants. (Voiced consonant sounds in the proverb are represented by the letters M, J, V, R, Z, L.)
4* Using the knowledge gained in the lesson, write a fairy tale or draw a comic book on the theme “In the city of consonant sounds.”

At home and on the street we can hear many sounds: human steps, the ticking of a clock, the sound of rain, birdsong, a car horn. However, the sounds of human speech stand apart and differ from others, because with their help you can form words. It is known that all sounds of the Russian language are divided into two groups: consonants and vowels. When forming vowels, air does not become obstructed in the oral cavity. But in the case of pronunciation of consonants, an obstacle arises in the oral cavity. So, what groups can they be, what does the expression “paired consonants” mean?

Voiceless and voiced consonants

The division into these groups is as follows: voiced consonants are pronounced with the help of noise and voice, but deaf consonants consist of noise alone. The first and second can form pairs based on deafness/voice. Correlative pairing is represented by 12 rows. For example: “d” - “t”, “g” - “k”, “z” - “s” and others. Such sounds are paired consonants. But not all consonants can be paired. They are not formed by voiced “n”, “m”, “l”, “y”, “r”, as well as unvoiced “ts”, “x”, “sch”, “ch”. In writing, sounds are indicated by corresponding letters. It's important to be careful. Paired and unpaired consonants at the end of a word or in the middle before a consonant may sound the same, but be marked in different letters. To check their spelling, it is necessary to find a word with the same root, so that after the consonant being checked there is a vowel, and the sound leaves no doubt about the spelling. For example:

gris b- gris b y, gree pp- gris pp chilly;

ro T- ro T ova (cavity), ro d- ro d ova (lock).

Consonants soft and hard

Depending on the position of the tongue when pronouncing sounds, all consonants are divided into hard and soft. These are different phonemes. Paired and unpaired consonants are distinguished. Examples of pairs: “v” - “v,” , “k” - “k,” , “r” - “r,” and others. icon ( , ) indicates the softness of the sound during transcription. Steam is not formed by soft “sch”, “ch”, “th”, and also by always hard “sh”, “zh”, “ts”. Of course, it is very important to distinguish between paired consonant sounds, hard and soft. Sometimes they even distinguish words. For example:

m ate - m ol, me l- meh l b.

IN " m el" and "me lь" highlighted consonants are soft, and in words " m ol" and "me l"- hard. Thanks to this special pronunciation, words are not confused.

When writing words, the softness of consonant sounds can be indicated in the following ways:

Using "b". For example: skates, elk, hit.
Using the letters “i”, “i”, “e”, “e”, “yu”. These are the cases: wheel, thrown, ball.

It is important to remember that in the middle of a word before a consonant, softness is not indicated soft sign in the following combinations: “st”, “schn”, “nt”, “rsch”, “chn”, “chk”, “nsch”, “nch”. Pay attention to the words: to LF ina, spo rshch itza, mo st iki. In the selected combinations, the first consonant is heard softly, but is written without

The letters “ya”, “e”, “e”, “yu” can represent the vowel sounds “a”, “e”, “o”, “u” + the softness of the consonant before them. In other cases (at the beginning of a word, after “ь”, “ъ”) they mean two sounds. And before the “i” sound, the consonants will always be pronounced softly.

So, one could notice that the creation of pairs is a feature that is very characteristic of the system of consonant sounds of the Russian language. Paired consonants are combined into groups and at the same time opposed to each other. They often help distinguish words.