Some consonant sounds in the Russian language are called voiceless, since they consist of one noise, i.e. are formed without the participation of the voice. There are ten such consonants: k, p, s, t, f, x, c, ch, sh, shch.
Other consonants are called voiced because they consist of voice and noise (the nose is dominated by noise). There are also ten of them: b, V, D, D, F, 3, l, m, n, r.
Among the voiced consonants, particularly sonorous ones stand out, in which the voice clearly prevails over the noise. There are four such consonants: l, m, n, r. They are called sonorous.
The sounds zh, ch, sh, shch are also called hissing.
The voiced consonants b, v, g, d, zh, z have paired voiceless consonants p, f, k, t, sh, s. The rest do not have corresponding pairs (see table).
Voiceless consonants: p, f, k, t, s, sh
Voiced consonants: b, v, g, d, z, zh, l, m, n, r
Voiced consonants b, v, d, d, zh, z at the end of a word or in the middle of a word before a voiceless consonant are deafened. For example: pillars - pillar (p), basins - basin (s), years - year (t), friend - friend (w), dexterous - dexterous (f), slide - slippery (s), etc.
Voiced sonorant consonants l, m, n, r are not deafened.
Voiceless consonants k, p, s, t, f, sh are voiced before voiced consonants. For example: collection (h), threshing (d).
Voicing and deafening of consonants, as a rule, are not indicated when writing.
Exercise 56. Indicate the number of sounds in the words below and name each of them.
Brain, work, table, people, loach, pit, yeast, teaching, massage, mine, winnow.
Exercise 57. Explain the difference between the pronunciation and spelling of the words below.
Do, labor, request, sweet, cork, approach, knock, skiff, departure, blackbird, give.
Exercise 58. Indicate cases of voicing and devoicing of consonants.
Hump, exit, make, beat off, sharp, squeeze, rare, carry, oak, mowing, low.
Exercise 59. Write by inserting the missing letters and indicate which sound each of the inserted letters corresponds to.
Ra.amp;sew, break, o.Run, distribute, calculate, volume.
Exercise 60. Write a sentence, emphasizing the consonants that denote sounds that have pairs of voicedness - deafness.
Although the courtyard and garden were still in the shade, the early rays were already brightly and coldly gilding the pink, yellow and blue pumpkins laid out on the reed roof of the mud hut where the watchmen lived (Cat.).
In the Russian language, voiceless and voiced consonants are distinguished. The rules for writing letters denoting them begin to be studied already in the first grade. But even after graduating from school, many still cannot write words containing voiceless and voiced consonants without errors. This is sad.
Why do you need to write voiceless and voiced consonants correctly in Russian?
Some people treat writing culture superficially. They justify their ignorance in this area with such a common phrase: “What difference does it make how it’s written, it’s still clear what it’s about!”
In fact, errors in spelling words indicate a low level of personal culture. You cannot consider yourself a developed person if you cannot write correctly in your native language.
There is one more fact that testifies in favor of the rule of error-free writing. After all, voiceless and voiced consonants are sometimes found in words that are homophones in oral speech. That is, they sound the same, but are written differently. Incorrect use of a letter in them is fraught with loss or change in the meaning of the context.
For example, the words “pond” - “rod”, “cat” - “code”, “horn” - “rock” are included in this list.
Shameful loss
During your Russian language lesson, you can tell schoolchildren a funny episode from your life. It should be based on the fact that several children did not know how to correctly write in words the letters denoting voiced and voiceless consonant sounds.
And this happened during the school team game “Treasure Hunters”. In its rules it was noted that it was necessary to move along the route indicated in the notes. Moreover, the place where the next letter was hidden was not indicated precisely. The note contained only a hint of him.
The teams received the first letters with the following text: “Road, meadow, stone.” One group of guys immediately ran towards the lawn and found a stone there, under which the letter was hidden. The second one, having mixed up the homophone words “meadow” and “onion”, ran to the garden bed. But, naturally, they did not find any stone among the bright green rows.
You can change history in such a way that the notes were written by an illiterate scribbler. It was he who, when giving instructions to his team members, used “bow” instead of the word “meadow”. Not knowing how to write paired voiced and voiceless consonants, the “literate” misled the children. As a result, the competition was canceled.
The rule for writing dubious paired consonants according to deafness and voicedness
In fact, checking which letter should be written in a particular case is quite simple. Paired voiced and voiceless consonants raise doubts about the spelling only when they are at the end of a word or are followed by another consonant voiceless sound. If one of these cases occurs, you need to choose a cognate or change the form of the word so that the dubious consonant is followed by a vowel sound. You can also use the option where the letter being tested is followed by a voiced consonant.
Mug - mug, snow - snow, bread - bread; carving - carved, sweat - sweaty.
Didactic game “Connect the word being tested with the test word”
To get more done during class, you can play a game that reinforces skills without recording. Its condition will be a task in which children are asked only to connect test words with the trait being tested. It takes less time, and the work done will be extremely effective.
The game will become more interesting if it is played in the form of a competition. To do this, three variants of tasks are made, where two columns are used. One contains test words. In the other, you need to include those in which voiced and voiceless consonants are in a dubious position. Examples of words could be like this.
First column: bread, ponds, snow, onion, meadows, twig. Second column: onion, bread, meadow, twig, snow, pond.
To complicate the task, you can include in the column with test words those that are not suitable for verification, that is, they are not the same root as those whose spelling there are doubts: snacks, servant, octopus.
Table of consonants according to voicedness and voicelessness
All consonant sounds are divided according to several parameters. During the phonetic analysis of a word in school, characteristics such as softness-hardness, sonority or deafness are indicated. For example, the sound [n] is a consonant, hard, sonorous. And the sound [p] differs from it in only one characteristic: it is not voiced, but dull. The difference between the sounds [р] and [р’] lies only in softness and hardness.
Based on these characteristics, a table is compiled, thanks to which you can determine whether the sound has a softness-hardness pair. After all, some consonants are only soft or only hard.
They also separate voiced and voiceless consonants. The table presented here shows that some sounds do not have a pair on this basis. For example, these are
- y, l, m, n, r;
- x, c, h, sch.
Moreover, the sounds of the first row are voiced, and the sounds of the second are unvoiced. The remaining consonants are paired. It is they that make writing difficult, since a dull sound is often heard where the letter denoting a voiced consonant is written.
Only paired consonants - voiced and voiceless - require verification. The table reflects this point. For example, the sound “b”, falling into the final position or being in front of another voiceless consonant, is itself “deafened”, turning into “p”. That is, the word “hornbeam” (wood species) is pronounced and heard as [grap].
The table shows that these sounds are paired in terms of voicedness and deafness. The same can be called “v” - “f”, “g” - “k”, “d” - “t”, “g” - “w” and “z” - “s”. Although you can add the sound “x” to the “g”-“k” pair, which often sounds in a deafened position in place of “g”: soft - soft[m'ahk'ii], easy - light[l’ohk’ii].
Didactic lotto game “Doubtful consonants”
So that classes in which the spelling of voiced and voiceless consonants is studied do not turn into a tedious routine, they should be diversified. For a didactic game, teachers and parents can prepare special small cards with pictures and words that contain dubious consonant sounds. A dubious consonant can be replaced with dots or asterisks.
Additionally, larger cards should be made, which will contain only letters indicating paired consonants in terms of voicedness and deafness. Cards with pictures are laid out on the table.
At the leader’s signal, the players take them from the table and cover with them the letters on the large card that they think are missing. Whoever closes all the windows before others and without mistakes is considered the winner.
Extracurricular activities in Russian language
Advantageous options for developing interest in this area of science are evenings, competitions, and KVNs. They are held outside school hours for everyone.
It is very important to create an exciting scenario for such an event. Particular attention should be paid to designing activities that are both rewarding and fun. Such activities can be carried out with students of all ages.
Interesting tasks can also be those that contain an element of literary creativity. For example, it is useful to offer the guys:
Make up a story about how the sounds “t” and “d” quarreled;
Come up with as many words with the same root as possible for the word “horn” in one minute;
Write a short quatrain with rhymes: meadow-onion, twig-pond.
Alternation of consonants in Russian
Sometimes, contrary to the laws of spelling, some letters in words are replaced by others. For example, “spirit” and “soul”. Historically (etymologically) they are the same root, but have different letters in the root - “x” and “w”. The same process of alternation of consonants is observed in the words “burden” and “to wear.” But in the latter case, the sound “sh” alternates with the consonant “s”.
However, it should be noted that this is not an alternation of voiced and voiceless consonants making up a pair. This is a special type of replacing one sound with another, which occurred in ancient times, at the dawn of the formation of the Russian language.
The following consonant sounds alternate:
- z - f - g (example: friends - to be friends - friend);
- t - h (example: fly - flying);
- ts - ch - k (example: face - personal - face);
- s - w - x (examples: forester - goblin, arable land - to plow);
- w - d - railway (example: leader - driver - driving);
- z - st (example: fantasy - fantastic);
- shch - sk (example: polished - gloss);
- sh - st (example: paved - paved).
Alternation is often referred to as the appearance of the “l” sound in verbs, which in this case has the beautiful name “el epentheticum”. Examples could be pairs of words “love - love”, “feed - feed”, “buy - buy”, “graph - graph”, “catch - catch”, “ruin - ruin”.
The Russian language is so rich, the processes occurring in it are so diverse, that if a teacher tries to find exciting options for working in the classroom, both in the classroom and outside of class, then many teenagers will plunge into the world of knowledge and discovery, and will become truly interested in this school subject.
Sound is the smallest unit of language pronounced with the help of the organs of the speech apparatus. Scientists have discovered that at birth, the human ear perceives all the sounds it hears. All this time, his brain sorts out unnecessary information, and by 8-10 months a person is able to distinguish sounds unique to his native language and all the nuances of pronunciation.
33 letters make up the Russian alphabet, 21 of them are consonants, but letters must be distinguished from sounds. A letter is a sign, a symbol that can be seen or written. The sound can only be heard and pronounced, and in writing it can be designated using transcription - [b], [c], [d]. They carry a certain semantic load, connecting with each other to form words.
36 consonant sounds: [b], [z], [v], [d], [g], [zh], [m], [n], [k], [l], [t], [p ], [t], [s], [sch], [f], [ts], [w], [x], [h], [b"], [z"], [v"], [ d"], [th"], [n"], [k"], [m"], [l"], [t"], [s"], [p"], [r"], [ f"], [g"], [x"].
Consonant sounds are divided into:
- soft and hard;
voiced and voiceless;
paired and unpaired.
Soft and hard consonants
The phonetics of the Russian language is significantly different from many other languages. It contains hard and soft consonants.
When pronouncing a soft sound, the tongue is pressed harder against the palate than when pronouncing a hard consonant sound, preventing the release of air. This is what distinguishes a hard and soft consonant sound from each other. In order to determine in writing whether a consonant sound is soft or hard, you should look at the letter immediately after the specific consonant.
Consonant sounds are classified as hard in the following cases:
- if letters a, o, u, e, s follow after them - [poppy], [rum], [hum], [juice], [bull];
- after them there is another consonant sound - [vors], [hail], [marriage];
- if the sound is at the end of the word - [darkness], [friend], [table].
The softness of sound is written as an apostrophe: mole - [mol’], chalk - [m’el], wicket - [kal’itka], pir - [p’ir].
It should be noted that the sounds [ш'], [й'], [ч'] are always soft, and hard consonants are only [ш], [тс], [ж].
A consonant sound will become soft if it is followed by “b” and vowels: i, e, yu, i, e. For example: gen - [g"en], flax - [l"on], disk - [d"ysk] , hatch - [l "uk", elm - [v "yaz", trill - [tr "el"].
Voiced and voiceless, paired and unpaired sounds
Based on their sonority, consonants are divided into voiced and voiceless. Voiced consonants can be sounds created with the participation of the voice: [v], [z], [zh], [b], [d], [y], [m], [d], [l], [r] , [n].
Examples: [bor], [ox], [shower], [call], [heat], [goal], [fishing], [pestilence], [nose], [genus], [swarm].
Examples: [kol], [floor], [volume], [sleep], [noise], [shch"uka], [choir], [king"], [ch"an].
Paired voiced and voiceless consonants include: [b] - [p], [zh] - [w], [g] - [x], [z] - [s]. [d] - [t], [v] - [f]. Examples: reality - dust, house - volume, year - code, vase - phase, itch - court, live - sew.
Sounds that do not form pairs: [h], [n], [ts], [x], [p], [m], [l].
Soft and hard consonants can also have a pair: [p] - [p"], [p] - [p"], [m] - [m"], [v] - [v"], [d] - [ d"], [f] - [f"], [k] - [k"], [z] - [z"], [b] - [b"], [g] - [g"], [ n] - [n"], [s] - [s"], [l] - [l"], [t] - [t"], [x] - [x"]. Examples: byl - bel, height - branch, city - cheetah, dacha - business, umbrella - zebra, skin - cedar, moon - summer, monster - place, finger - feather, ore - river, soda - sulfur, pillar - steppe, lantern - farm, mansions - hut.
Table for memorizing consonants
To clearly see and compare soft and hard consonants, the table below shows them in pairs.
Solid - before the letters A, O, U, Y, E Soft - before the letters I, E, E, Yu, I | Hard and soft consonants | |||
| b | ball | b" | battle | |
| V | howl | V" | eyelid | |
| G | garage | G" | hero | |
| d | hole | d" | tar | |
| h | ash | z" | yawn | |
| To | godfather | To" | sneakers | |
| l | vine | l" | foliage | |
| m | March | m" | month | |
| n | leg | n" | tenderness | |
| P | spider | P" | song | |
| R | height | R" | rhubarb | |
| With | salt | With" | hay | |
| T | cloud | T" | patience | |
| f | phosphorus | f" | firm | |
| X | thinness | X" | chemistry | |
| Unpaired | and | giraffe | h | miracle |
| w | screen | sch | hazel | |
| ts | target | th | felt | |
Another table will help you remember consonant sounds.
| Doubles | Voiced | Deaf |
| B | P | |
| IN | F | |
| G | TO | |
| D | T | |
| AND | Sh | |
| Z | WITH | |
| Unpaired | L, M, N, R, J | X, C, Ch, Shch |
Children's poems for better mastery of the material
There are exactly 33 letters in the Russian alphabet,
To find out how many consonants -
Subtract ten vowels
Signs - hard, soft -
It will immediately become clear:
The resulting number is exactly twenty-one.
Soft and hard consonants are very different,
But not dangerous at all.
If we pronounce it with noise, then they are deaf.
The consonant sounds proudly say:
They sound different.
Hard and soft
In fact, very light.
Remember one simple rule forever:
W, C, F - always hard,
But Ch, Shch, J are only soft,
Like a cat's paws.
And let’s soften others like this:
If we add a soft sign,
Then we get spruce, moth, salt,
What a cunning sign!
And if we add the vowels I, I, Yo, E, Yu,
We get a soft consonant.
Brother signs, soft, hard,
We don't pronounce
But to change the word,
Let's ask for their help.
The rider rides on a horse,
Con - we use it in the game.
Every first-grader knows that sound is a unit of speech that we pronounce and hear, and letters we read and write. In Russian they are divided into vowels and consonants. Of the 33 letters of the Russian alphabet, 21 are called consonants. They are divided according to their sonority and dullness, softness and hardness. They begin to study the classification of letters in the 1st grade, but the student will have to use it before graduating from school. When studying phonetics, each student must learn to distinguish between voiceless sounds and voiced sounds. During writing, they are indicated by transcription - [b]. The table will help you distinguish and remember paired consonant sounds.
Paired consonants according to voiced-voicelessness
All consonants in the Russian language form pairs; a voiced consonant is opposed to a voiceless consonant. There are 12 paired letters in total, making 6 pairs:
Paired and unpaired consonants need to be known in order to be successful in spelling. Many spellings of the Russian language are based on the selection of cognate words according to this classification, for example:
- soft - soft,
- tooth teeth.
The first pair contains the letter g, which is not clearly heard when pronounced and spelling it is difficult. The second words are test words when the spelling is pronounced clearly. Younger students often make mistakes in these works.
You may notice that not all letters of the alphabet form pairs. This happens because phonetics has rules that need to be remembered. They are based on the fact that sounds can only be voiced or only unvoiced. They are easy to remember because they are small in number. As a rule, by the end of 1st grade, students know them by heart. These include r, n, l, m, th - sonorous, always voiced, ts, ch, sh, x - always voiceless.
Paired consonants for softness and hardness
Consonants are usually divided into hard and soft. In phonetics, the softening process occurs in several situations:
- when after a consonant there is a vowel: yu, ya, e, e, and (blizzard, buttercup);
- or there is a soft sign (blizzard, drinking).
If after a consonant there is a vowel, except e, e, yu, ya, and, then it does not allow softening. For example, in the words peony, earth, after the consonant there is a vowel, which provokes the process of softening. In words such as lamp, water, there are no letters e, e, yu, i, and, therefore, when pronounced, all sounds are hard.
There are also letters that, when reproduced in speech, will always be soft or hard. These include: shch, h, j, c, w, g. Every student needs to know the classification of letters and sounds for successful learning.
A special table will help you remember paired voiced and voiceless voices. It's easy to navigate.
Such a table or a similar one can sometimes be found in a primary school classroom. It has been proven that younger schoolchildren have more developed visual-figurative thinking, so they need to provide new information in the form of illustrations or pictures, then it will be effective.
Every parent can create such a table on a first-grader’s desktop. Do not be afraid that this tip will lead to laziness of the student. On the contrary, if he often looks at the image, he will quickly remember everything he needs.
There are more consonant sounds in the Russian language, so remembering their classification is more difficult. If you list all the unvoiced and voiced ones, you get the number 12. The letters ch, sh, y, shch, c, zh, r, n, l, m are not taken into account; they are classified as unpaired.
There are tips for children on how to quickly learn to recognize a voiced and a voiceless consonant when parsing a word. To do this, you need to press your palm to your throat and pronounce a clearly separate sound. Voiceless and voiced consonants will be pronounced differently and, accordingly, will be reflected differently in the palm of your hand. If there is vibration in the hand, it is voiced; if not, it is deaf. Many children use this hint when studying phonetics.
There is another exercise that helps to accurately determine which consonant is in front of the student. To do this, you need to cover your ears with your hands, but preferably there should be silence. Say the exciting letter and listen to it with your ears closed. If it is not heard, then it is a dull sound; if, on the contrary, it is clearly heard, it is a ringing sound.
If you try, today any parent can find many interesting, exciting and educational exercises and rules that will help the child easily master new knowledge. This will make the learning process more interesting and entertaining, which in turn will affect academic performance.
Usually, children do not have serious difficulties understanding the difference between vowels and consonants. But we should dwell in more detail on hard and soft consonants.
How to teach children to distinguish between hard and soft consonants
The very first thing you need to teach your child: consonant sounds can be hard and soft, but not letters.
Typical error:
Children confuse sounds and letters. We remember that a sound sounds, and a letter is an icon, it is written. A letter cannot be hard or soft; only a consonant sound can be hard or soft in pronunciation.
Sometimes children can easily learn to distinguish soft and hard sounds by ear.
But it happens that this is difficult, and in this case signs will come to the rescue by which you can distinguish hard sounds from soft ones.
Distinctive features of soft and hard sounds
What sound comes after a consonant:
- If after a consonant there is a vowel a, o, u, e, s, then the consonant is hard.
- If after a consonant there is a vowel and, e, yu, i, then the consonant is soft.
Working on examples:
In the words “mama” and “nora” the consonants are hard, because they are followed by “a” and “o”.
In the words “fly” and “nanny” the consonants are soft because they are followed by “e”, “i”, “ya”.
- If another consonant sounds after a consonant, then the first consonant will be hard.
- There are sounds that can only be hard and sounds that can only be soft, no matter what sound is heard or what letter is written after them.
Always hard sounds - zh, sh, ts.
Always soft - th, h, shch.
A common way to learn these sounds is a simple technique: we write the letters that convey these sounds on a line, and emphasize “th, ch, sch.” The underscore symbolizes the cushion on which the soft sounds sit. The pad is soft, which means the sounds are soft.
Soft sign and hard sign
- If there is a consonant at the end of a word, and after it there is a letter “b”, then the consonant is soft.
This rule is easy to apply if the child sees the written word, but it will not help if the child performs the task by ear.
Movement of the tongue when pronouncing soft and hard sounds
When pronouncing a soft sound, the tongue moves slightly forward, approaching the palate (or touching it) with its middle.
When pronouncing hard sounds, the tongue does not move forward.
Table of signs of hard and soft sounds
Solid:
- Before a, o, y, e, y.
- At the end of a word before a consonant.
- F, c, w.
Soft:
- Before the vowels e, e, i, yu, i.
- If after a consonant there is a soft sign (dust, measles).
- Y, h, sch.
A picture or simply a list of thematic words is shown, and the task is given to choose words with soft or hard consonants. For example:
Voiced and voiceless consonants
There are 11 pairs of voiced/voiceless consonants in the Russian language.
The phonetic difference between voiced and voiceless consonants lies in the tension of the vocal cords. Voiceless sounds are pronounced with the help of noise, without straining the ligaments. Voiced sounds are pronounced by voice and are caused by vibration of the vocal cords, because air comes out of the larynx noisily.
Mnemonic technique for memorizing voiceless sounds:
Learn the phrase: “Styopka, do you want some cheek? - Fi! All consonant sounds here are unvoiced.
Examples of tasks for children
Tasks for training the differences between paired consonants can be compiled for each pair according to the following principle (using the example of the D/T pair):
Tasks for distinguishing a pair of consonants G/K
