💰 💵 💸 Деньги - Money. The Mysterious [dz] Sound. +Godzilla

2 years ago

Image: Kong vs Godzilla, Flickr


Hey everyone! :-)

Have you ever wondered whether you pronounce the first letter in the word деньги correctly?

Let's take a look at some pronunciation rules in Russian and find out.

🔴 THE BASIC RULE:
There are vowels in the Russian language that soften preceding consonants. The letter "е" is one of them.

Exemples:


◽️ деньги - the letter д in the word деньги is softened because it is succeeded by a softening vowel "e". So д sounds like [dz]. Just like you would pronounce it in the middle of the word godzilla.




◽️ день - similarly doesn't sound like [d] in the word den (lion's den) but rather like [dz] in the word godzilla.


Some other words with softened д:

[dz] at the beginning of a word:
◽️ дерево - a tree
◽️ девушка - a girl
◽️ дед - grandfather
◽️ дети - children
◽️ девять - nine
◽️ десять - ten
◽️ делать - to do
◽️ деталь - a detail

[dz] in the middle of a word:
◽️ идея - an idea
◽️ здесь - here
◽️ одежда - clothes
◽️ одеяло - a blanket
◽️ сделка - a deal
◽️ лидер - a leader
◽️ отдел - a department
◽️ падеж - a grammatical case
◽️ видеть - to see
◽️ неделя - a week
◽️ сидеть - to sit
◽️ сиденье - a seat
◽️ видение - a vision
◽️ индейка - a turkey
◽️ надежда - hope
◽️ чудесный - wonderful

[dz] at the end of a word:
◽️ где - where
◽️ везде - everywhere
◽️ нигде - nowhere

[dz] at the end of some declined words in expressions like:
◽️ на заводе - at the factory
◽️ в моде - in fashion
◽️ по правде говоря - to tell the truth, actually, as a matter of fact


📌 To help you see how this bright and beautiful sound works here are some more examples in English :

[dz] at the end of some English words:
◽️ sides 
◽️ roads 
◽️ beds
◽️ beads 
◽️ sands


A SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON:
Let's take a look at the expression Добрый день! - the first "д" in the word Добрый isn't softened because it is succeeded by the letter "о", which, in its turn, is NOT a softening vowel in the Russian language. But the "д" in the word день is softened and sounds like [dz] because it is followed by "e".

OTHER SOFTENING VOWELS:
Well, I concentrated only on the softening "e" in this post but there are other softening vowels like: я, ё, ю, е, and и that soften preceding consonants and of course let's not forget about the soft sign "Ь" too.

EXCEPTIONS:
And, of course, there are exceptions: letters ж, ш, ц are NEVER softened.


🔴 THE MAIN POINT TO REMEMBER:
Whenever you see the softening vowel "е", please know that the preceding consonant is definitely softened (if it's not an exception, of course).


Hope you got value!

If you have any questions please ask them in the comments or DM me.
And if you need a more detailed explanation and/or practice, please don't be a stranger and feel free to BOOK A SESSION with me. I'm here to help you improve your Russian and take it to the next level. :-)

Happy learning! :-)




P.S.
Memes are added just for fun. Please don't pay attention to the mistakes in them.