Russian Phonetics. How to Master the Sound [Ы] ([Y])

What makes the wonderful letter Ы (and the equivalent sound [Ы]) so difficult? The thing is that most languages in the world don’t have this sound in contrast to the sound [И] ([I]). That’s why international students often confuse [Ы] and [И], which leads to confusion in the meaning of what they are saying. In the case of the Russian language, the pronunciation of this wonderful, exotic sound can determine the success of your communication. Why is that?

Firstly, this sound is very common. You can come across it everywhere - in verbs, nouns, and noun endings of nouns and adjectives.

Secondly, the substitution of the sound [Ы] by [И], which is easier to pronounce, cardinally changes the meaning of words and phrases. It is the case when you seem to speak Russian, but you are not understood.

For example, if someone hears the phrase ‘Ya byl z druzyami v bare’ (‘I was with my friends at the bar’), pronounced as ‘Ya bil z druzyami v bare’ (‘I beat with my friends at the bar’), they may want to ask some serious questions at once: ‘Who did you beat at the bar?’ or ‘Why did you beat that person at the bar?’ And it is also an important reminder that violence is punishable.

There can be a lot of such examples.

For example, let’s look at the following word pairs:

vyl – vil

kryl – kril’

myl – mil

rvy – rvi

syr – sir…

To avoid getting into an awkward situation (or crime news—Ed. note: It’s a joke), you can do several effective exercises to drill the pronunciation of the sound [Ы]. You need to move your tongue back and strain the back of your tongue so that the tip does not touch your lower incisors. How can you do it? As easy as one-two-three.

Start drawing the sound [У] ([U]) and stretch your lips apart slowly without changing the position of your tongue. Don’t hurry up. You will hear the sound changing into the wonderful [Ы] you've been waiting for so long.

You can try drilling the [Ы] sound through [И]. For this purpose, you may need an auxiliary tool. A cotton swab or a short ruler will come in handy. Start drawing [И] and move and push your tongue back with a swab little by little during the process. The sound has changed.

When you understand the mechanics of articulation, you need to fix the result. To drill the sound [Ы], you can pronounce words with this sound:

Ty, vy, my, koty, tsvety, syn, syr, yazyk, dym, stoly, plyt’, sny, ryk, ryba, rynok, seryj, dobryj, myl, mylo, mys, kumys, smysl, uvy, vukhod, novyj, otdyh, muzyka, belyi, umnyj, chornyj, zelionyj...