Stress

In the phrase:

Что э́то?
(meaning “What is this?”), the letter о sounds like o in open. But in the second word, the same letter has a sound somewhere between the u in cup and the a in aha. Why? It’s a matter of stress.

When we talk about a stressed syllable, we mean the syllable that gets the most emphasis when you pronounce it.

In the English words below, the stressed syllable is shown bold and colored:

interest
distinguish
investigation
result

Look at these two English words with the stress on different syllables.

desert meaning “large dry area with sand”
dessert meaning “sweet yummy thing you eat at the end of a meal”

When you pronounce them, you’ll notice that the first e changes its sound depending on whether it's stressed or not.

The Russian letter о also changes its pronunciation depending on stress. Here’s the rule:

What would you like to do next?

  1. Find out why the ч is pronounced like “sh” instead of “ch”.
  2. Find out where the word “is” went.
  3. Continue with the tutorial.
  4. Go back to the “What is this” page.