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Lesson 3
So, guys, guess we need to finish with the consonants today. U learned already that most of them can have soft and firm forms, some always stay soft, others are always firm.
Just a small note for those, who still has difficulties with pronauncing soft and firm consonant sounds: to make the consonant sound softer, U need to lift the middle part of ur tongue toward ur 'hard palate' (u can determine where your hard palate is by pronouncing the sound 'j' like in "yes": it is where your tongue touches the upper jaw). So, to make the consonant sound firmer, just leave ur tongue down.
But the problem is that consonants are divided not into soft and firm only. They can be voiced and unvoiced. And this thing is really important, as it can change the meaning of the word. Let's see what we have here:
12 consonants can be divided into 6 pairs this way:
voiced - unvoiced
б - п
в - ф
г - к
д - т
ж - ш
з - с
These are voiced and don't have unvoiced pair: й, л, м, н, р
These are unvoiced and don't have voiced pair: х, ц, ч, щ
But futher we'll be talking only about these 6 pairs as they are the only ones U can have difficulties with. Why? Damn, coz from time to time these bustards sound like each other. Sometimes 'б' is written, but U have to read it like 'п' or vice versa and so on... Now I'll try to explain when it happens.
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