Pronunciation of Russian Ш (sh) and Щ (shsh). What's the difference?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 พ.ค. 2024
- Russian alphabet pronunciation can be tricky for Russian learners. While some of the letters of the Russian alphabet have direct counterparts in English in terms of pronunciation, some don’t. One of such confusing letters is the Russian Щ.
See, most sources portray the difference between the Russian Ш and Щ something like this: the Russian Ш is pronounced as a “sh” in “ship” and Щ is usually referred to something vaguer, like to a “shsh” or a “shch” combination.
This approach is wrong because the English SH /ʃ/ is really a middle sound between Ш and Щ. So, it would be more correct to say that both Russian Ш and Щ are pronounced approximately like an English SH. The keyword here is “approximately” because Ш and Щ are pronounced differently in Russian, otherwise, why would we have 2 separate letters for them, right?
In this video, you’ll understand the difference between the Russian Ш and Щ and will learn how exactly to pronounce them which in turn will improve your Russian pronunciation.
00:00 Men, mustache, and pronunciation
02:27 The difference between Ш and Щ
05:27 How to pronounce Ш
08:20 How to pronounce Щ
10:43 Reading practice
13:42 Conclusion
I live in Alaska (the Russia of America) and have many Russians here I can practice with. Your videos help!
I was doing my little private research about where the Russian expats and people with Russian roots reside in US. I loved how the most dense by Russians populated states where all in the North (Washington, North Dakota, New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Alaska.
Only exception was Florida. But as much as I heard on internet, Florida has certain reputation :D
@@Martina-Kosicanka it’s so freaking hot here too. Insanely hot, not even AC is helping. The other states are cooler than this in terms of temperature
@@thealaskanforever I heard that Canada had heats with temperatures over 40°C (over 104° F) week or two ago. Hard to imagine. Meanwhile there is snowing in Brazil (I know they have winter, but still)
That was good, Soviet Alaskan!!! 🤑🤑🤑
Your videos have been an invaluable resource in my Russian studies. Thank you so much.
Glad to hear that!
The misuse of big terms and compIiments is beyond wrong - words like invaluable or priceless or precious only reflect me, and cannot be misused by others, and, the big terms attractive and adorn (and the other big terms misused in the video) also only reflect me & my pure protectors aka the alphas, and my protectors are the only ones who are handsome and attractive guys and the only ones reflecting the words men / guy(s] / boy(s) / lad(s) / man etc, while humnz are the exact opposite of such terms, and, attractiveness is an unique quality that only we pure beings possess (me & my protectors) which is the quantity that makes one feel naturally attracted to / naturally drawn to the pure being!
I don’t even understand why such scenes are even included in videos, and it’s not even true, as none of them dudez (that aren’t pure / v!rgin by choice and on my side) are men nor handsome / attractive (not to mention the fact that mustaches are really afI, and one can’t compare them to letters) etc - only pure guys are men / guys etc, such as my protectors, while the ones that aren’t pure are just dudez, and all humanz are the opposite of compIiments / big terms / nature related terms and any other unsuitable terms, and, we pure beings do not identify as humnz, as we are the opposite of humnz!
Anyways, re the letters - these are some of the few Russian letters that I can recognize, but I don’t like the sound of the hard SH, so I would always pronounce the SH very softly if I would speak in Russian (as well as other languages that have similar sounds) and, I also always pronounce letters like R very soft as well, which has the best / most refined sound! I generally don’t like the sounds / letters like SH and R, and I also don’t like hard letters in general! Like, I’m learning Dutch, but I would never pronounce the words that have G and R using a hard R or a hard G as most of them do, so I would pronounce the G as a normal soft G close to an H and the R very softly! And I think they have a similar SH sound in Swedish that’s similar to the hard SH in Russian, and I would pronounce it as a normal soft SH sound like in the English terms shall and shape etc! Language rules change all the time to make the languages easier to speak / read etc and to make the words sound pretty to the ear - so technically one doesn’t have to pronounce something a certain way, esp if there are different ways to pronounce a word that would improve the sound! I also would never pronounce the English TH as most of them do - sounds wrong and funny and results in one making funny faces when pronouncing the TH that way, so everyone should just pronounce it closer to a D instead! Some of the pronunciation rules in many languages really need to change! And the pronouns too! And in languages like French they should pronounce the words softly and without the nasal sound - then I might be able to understand spoken French with ease!
Also, the scene at the end is very ofsv and shouldn’t be included in videos, which isn’t even related to language learning - ksng is only meant for me, not for womyn, and it will soon be b4nned, as are all other wrong things!
Language lesson with comedy. I love it!
Glad you enjoyed it, Mr. Sparkles!
What comedy? He was just talking about the relative attractiveness of two men, what is so funny about it?
I can hear the difference when you say it but I can’t tell if I’m saying it differently for each one. I will revisit this video in the hopes that as I continue learning it will finally become apparent. Thank for another great video.
It's about time, I'm glad you're back! I've been searching for useful Russian language videos since you've been away, but none are as helpful as yours. Looking forward to more!
Thanks for the kind words, John. In this video, we talked about the importance of a mustache. In the next video, we shall talk about comrade Vladimir Lenin and the world revolution. 2 very useful Russian language videos as you see.
Very helpful video! I'm glad you're still posting after five years :)
спасибо!
Thank you so much - best video I've ever watched on this topic. I can just defer to your method and never need to watch another video on this topic that has confused me for a long time.
Glad it was helpful!
When I first started learning Russian (40 years ago), we were taught that it was 'shch'. I've also read that there is a difference between how Russians pronounce it regionally (e.g., between Moscow and St. Petersburg).
The regionality of pronunciation (=dialects) is quickly declining in Russia, so one probably shouldn't take into account the dialect factor anymore.
There is still some regional variation in the pronunciation of some other sounds, but ш and щ are pronounced more or less the same across all regions these days
This is typical for the Ukrainian language and Belarusian (harder there), but even they have it variable, while in Russian it sounds like a non-literary pronunciation from a deep village.
Thanks for coming back 👍🔥
Good to be back!
Very useful video Denis, thank you very much for taking the time to help people who loves Russian language!
My pleasure!
i watched dozens of videos about this topic and never really understood the difference. This one made you FEEL the difference! Absolutely amazing, thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Really nice video - clear, organized, opportunity for practice - thank you.
Thank you so much, Denis. Perfectly structured, as usual. This is the best explanation I have seen of the difference between ш and щ. BTW, Nice use of "amigos")))
Спасибо за добрые слова, Ребека!
It is remarkable that Sanskrit also has both sibilants. ш = ष (ṣa) , and щ = श (śa)
not just sanskrit but like almost all indian languages
the sha in my name is the shch sha
chinese languages too have this distinction.
@@aakashnair5170 studied simplified chinese, and I don't recall this at all. although i noticed that the chinese q is the same as ц or 'ts'
@@Lobstersalad-wi4qx xin would be a scha and shen would be a sha if im not wrong
@@aakashnair5170 xin is pronounced sin
@@Lobstersalad-wi4qx that's the southern chinese accent. In standard Beijing Chinese it's a shch.
Welcome back! I was so disapointed to be late at the party (discoverirng you four year after you uploaded). I love your videos
Thank you so much, Martina! Better late than never.
@@DenisFedorov True :)
Thank your for this explanation, it is the absolute best on youtube :)
Amazing detail. Thank you so much Denis.
My pleasure!
Wow thank you! this video really helps me
You are wonderful! Thank you for this.
You are so welcome!
WOW THIS WAS AMAZINGLY WELL EXPLAINED THANK YOU!!
Рад стараться!
Love the peripheral knowledge here. I not only learned about ш and щ, but also about linguistics, anatomy, and the need to possess under-the-nose attire. Seriously, though, this a great explanation. There are so many crap explanations out there trying to explain these letters using English analogs, and none of them made sense to me. Your explanation does. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing! Though, the information about mustache is, without doubt, the most important part of this video.
Thanks! Very well explained!
Glad it was helpful!
Can I just say what a great teacher you are. 🎉❤🎻
So excited to see your new video! You’ve always been one of my favorite teachers! Добро пожаловать
Wow, thank you! Спасибо за добрые слова.
"Добро пожаловать" is an invitation to a house or a group of people.
Finally, I understand the difference between ш and щ
You are back!! And with a great grammatical issue. I have always had problems with the pronounciation of these two letters... Спасибо for the explanation!
Happy to help, Joaquina!
Nice Russian accent, Joaquina. This was a very good opportunity to reply you from Alaska.
Wow was that helpful. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you. It helped me a lot
the section where you compared them in the english words really helped
pls keep making videos, they are so useful!!!
More to come!
I have learnt from this video that George Clooney should have a mustache
I seriously have never considered him attractive. Now I learnt it was the lacking moustache.
Your lesson helps me a lot, thanks sapasibo ขอบคุณครับ 🙏
Thank you for your videos and for the awesome humor 😂 Some parts I have to rewatch from laughing too much
Thank you for the accent marks.
My Russian pronunciation is woefully lacking in subtlety but I do enjoy trying. I watch your videos as much for your humor as for gaining the skills that you explain in great detail. Carry on, comrade!
Thanks for the kind words, Lisa!
yess!!! thank you
Thankful
Спасибо большое.
thank you so much for this. I never could understand it from books. and friends never could explain it
I’ve been pronouncing ш щ right all along. I noticed the SH was more pronounced in Russia than America. I’ve also noticed you can ACTUALLY hear the ye and yo in е and ё in Russians words. You’d be surprised how many ppl don’t pronounce such as ye and yo correctly.
I think of щ as ш+ь, maybe not the best analogy but that's how I trained щ to some level. I actually learned from this video that my Scottish 'sh' is actually closer to щ naturally so it was easy to emulate it and I had to relearn my ш. I can already feel a more 'Russian' like pronunciation with words involving ш. Great video!
Exactly. The only nuance here is that the Russian orthography treats the combination of as [ш], not palatalized [щ] due to some historic reasons. There is also a voiced counterpart of in Russian, also palatalized, which is commonly spelled as or , e.g. поезжай, дрожжи, but many people pronounce it as the regular [ж], so it's up to you which rendering you prefer in those situations.
А ещё "Ь" - это на самом деле призвук "Й", который произносится одновременно с согласной.
То есть "С+Й=СЬ".
@@YaShoom Мой Русский плохой, потому что, я из Шотландии. Если я понимал верно вас, Ь/Й с согласной звучaт такие же.
Tакже спасибо за 'то есть'. Я буду использовать эта фраза.
@@Vhaanzeit не совсем так, сочетание букв "СЙ" не существует в русском, просто "С+Й=СЬ" именно по звучанию, а не по письменности.
Если произнести "С" и "Й" ОДНОВРЕМЕННО, то получится "СЬ".
Это называете "палатализация", то же самое есть и в ирландском.
п.с.
Исправил ваши ошибки:
"""Я плохо говорю по-русски, потому что я из Шотландии. Если я понЯЛ вас верно, то "Ь" и "Й" с согласной звучaт одинаково.
Tакже спасибо за "то есть" - теперь я буду использовать это в своей речи. """
(Вы написали "Я буду использовать эта фраза", но нужно "Я буду использовать этУ фразУ", хотя формально "то есть" - это "фразеологизм" или "устойчивое сочетание", что слишком формально и длинно, по этому изменил ваши слова на "...теперь я буду использовать это в своей речи")
п.п.с. "то есть" звучит как "тОисьть".
@@YaShoom Спасибо за помощь! Вы хороший человек.
1.) "этУ фразУ". Простая ошибка. Я знаю о падежах, ну не естественно eщё. Талже "одинаково".
2.) "это в своей речи". спасибо!
3.) " "то есть" звучит как "тОисьть". Без тебя никогда бы я знал, как это бы звучало.
спасибо товарищ!
I love your humour 😂
Thanks so much Comrade
Any time!
Wow! Really helpful. I studied Russian many years ago in high school and university. All teachers said the Щ is pronounced sh-ch - two sounds - like “Danish cheese.” Coming back to Russian now with so much access to videos online, etc. I noticed that it is pronounced much more the way you’re demonstrating. This is the first time I’ve seen in clearly explained. большое спасибо!
Glad it was helpful!
You shocked me in the beginning! I could've swore you were going to say George Clooney was the handsome one 😂 anyways great video! I am still practicing my Ш and Щ
Mandarin also has a similar pair of "sh"-sounding letters. "X" (ㄒ) is pronounced with the tongue forward and "sh" (ㄕ) is pronounced with the tongue back. With the Chinese "sh," the tongue may be further back than Russian ш, but I'm not sure. I'll still think of it roughly that way.
Hey welcome back!
Great pleasure to be back again!
LOL!!!!!!!!!! 🤣🤣🤣
To my English ears, Ш sounds like saying "sh" while doing an impression of Sean Connery, our favorite Scottish-Latvian-Soviet submarine captain. :P
I would say that ш sound comes (emanates) from the top of the roof of the mouth, and щ from the front.
This was very useful! Before I thought it was just that Щ was sharper/higher in sound than Ш, which I guess isn't completely wrong even if it isn't right))
Ш+Й=Щ
Ur little shorts are very funny !
And your detailed explanation helps .
When I make the shsh sound I sort of whistle , doesn’t what you do with the shape of your mouth also factor in ?
Actually I am pretty sure I am one of those English speakers that pronounce sh and the other letters you listed the Incorrect way 😢.
Oh my,seems like I was going back to my Anatomy class more than decades ago hahaha.Russian Yazyk is really hard but it's all good though..
Cool@👍👌
Удачи 👍🏻,
Thanks Denis, what does the emblem on your shirt mean? "I love puzzle"?
Thank you so much. The most useful video ever.
Glad you think so!
Hey, I have a question, what are pictures of how the mouth looks when pronouncing something called? As in the pictures you gave at 5:55? Thanks
One thing to note here is this. When Russians call a consonant "soft", normally it means that the tongue should be more, not less, tense. And the other way around. This can be very counterintuitive for many foreigners. In this example, щ is the "soft" sound in this pair, and effectively it means the back of your tongue is more tense and the tip of the tongue is extended farther forward (which creates even more tension), while when you're producing a ш, the back of your tongue is relaxed and the tip is curled up and retracted backwards (a bit more lax)
That's a good point!
Сам звук звучит мягче. Произнесите "Мама" и "Мямя".
@@user-uu4kz8sr5i"мягкость" на слух - это просто условность, нас так учили с детства и мы привыкли называть эти звуки мягкими, хотя ничего по-настоящему мягкого в них нет. Для иностранцев это совсем не очевидно, потому что речевой аппарат при воспроизведении "мягких" звуков напрягается больше и работает сильнее, чем при воспроизведении звуков "твердых". На это я и указываю
@@Limemill это может и условность, но условность подкреплённая реальностью. Мягкие звуки звучат по детски, так как дети "сюсюкают" как бы (незнаю как это назвать, "детский умиляющий акцент"?).
У иностранцев нет такой ассоциации, потому что в их языке это не важно в плане различия смыслов, и они просто не связывают своих детей с нормами языка.
Для меня некоторые мягкие звуки наоборот легче в произношении, например СЬ, ЗЬ, ЧЬ, ЩЬ, ЖЬ...
Так что у иностранцев срабатывает ложная ассоциация из-за непривычности, по этому им и тяжело произносить.
К тому же, они ориентируются не на слух, а на сложность произношения, а я говорю про мягкость звучания маленького существа: Мышка пИкает, а лев рЫчит.
И можете ли вы мне объяснить, какой смысл вы вкладываете в слово "условность" ?
@@user-uu4kz8sr5i Условность - то, о чем когда-то договорились языковеды, необязательно соотносящееся с физическими аспектами звуковоспроизведения. Мягкие звуки требуют бОльших усилий речевого аппарата (при условии, что вы воспроизводите их правильно). Посмотрите еще раз на объяснения в этом видео, и потом несколько по очереди и медленно произнесите "Ш - Щ - Ш - Щ..." (и так далее). В итоге, вы заметите, что язык при производстве "ш" находится в более-менее расслабленном положении, в то время как при производстве "щ" язык оттягивается назад и кверху (напрягается), хотя если на это не обращать внимания, может показаться, что этот звук производить легче. То же и с н - нь, например. Если прислушаться к себе, можно заметить, что вообще-то язык напрягается больше при произнесении нь
Comrade? Dangerous feeling.
Do u have the soft of this book
As a Russian student I pay special attention to the difference between the sounds which Ш and Щ make, but still imagine a long sentence in Russian where ш and щ are used many times, a nightmare for non native speakers. 🤯. Still this video is one of the best on this subject. Спасибо.
Very scientific explanation of phonetics here!
Great explanation, now my tongue is aching from the pronouncing attempts haah, the soft Щ is definitely harder to pronounce. I feel like the english diagraph sound sh is much closer to Ш in terms of tongue posture
No, the English "Sh" is closer to the soft "Щ" (but the Russian one is even softer).
@@YaShoom the comparison is confusing me a lot since English pronounciation of SH is extremely vague. The main TaKe away is ш is prounounced with the tongue at the back and щ pronounced forwards
@@Lobstersalad-wi4qx The Russian soft "Щ" is a palatalized version of the English "Sh".
And the Russian hard "Ш" is an under-rotated Chinese deaf "R" (the comparison is very clumsy, but the hard "Ш/Ж" is closer to the English "R" than to the English "Sh").
@@Lobstersalad-wi4qx And what is your native language, if not a secret?
Soft Š (щ) sounds to me like Norwegian "Kj" sound. I wonder if I feel it at least remotely correct :D
Yes, you are right, it's the same sound.
@@DenisFedorov Really? I have never expected that my brief encounter with Norwegian could bring me something useful in the future :D. Thank you for making me happy :D
@@Martina-Kosicanka научиться произносить ЩЬ - нет проблем, чаще иностранцы именно её и произносят (ведь SH ближе к ЩЬ), но вот произносить твёрдую Ш мало кто умеет.
It is like chinese xD cool, thanks Denis.
It is like the ZH sound in chinese vs the X sound
At 7:20, the drawing is incomprehensible. Then you reverse it in the next example. Very confusing.
The guy without the mustache is much more handsome.
For any malayalees watching this, щ is exactly ശ ш is ഷ
Lol 😂
Good on you for bothering to make your own channel!
It seems to me:
Ш (Russian) => ष (Samskrit)
Щ (Russian) => श (Samskrit)
Samskrit (incorrectly pronounced Sanskrit) - using the Devanagari script like Hindi
It sounds like you're pronouncing them both the same to me. I have noticed that in Russian words using these two letters, the sh sound in words with Ш have a definite and noticeable different sound from the sh sound in words using Щ. Doesn't the Russian Щ have something of a higher "hissing" sound to it, or vice versa? I've also noticed that on the translator, if I pronounce them both the same in every word, I'm gonna be wrong on one of them almost 100% of the time. I don't know exactly, maybe I'm wrong all the way around, but when I say "Куда ты собираешься," the Ш sound in "собираешься," definitely has its own peculiar sound. I can't even pronounce the Ш in that word with just a regular sh sound. I can't pronounce it as "shaw" either. I knew it. All I needed to do was watch the rest of the video, huh? Lol.
Русская письменность не фонетическая, а в большей мере морфологическая, с остатками исторических деталей.
Мягкий знак в слове "собираешься" - является историческим остатком, но по современному произношению Ш всегда читается твёрдо, вне зависимости от следующей гласной.
Так что собираешься читается как "сабирАишся", Ш в нём твёрдая. Вы не можете её произнести потому что следующая "С" мягкая, вам просто надо потренироваться произносить такие сложные сочетания.
@@user-uu4kz8sr5i Спаcибо🙂
I can clearly hear the difference between the English “sh”, and the Russian “sh”. But I really am struggling to hear any difference between Shah and Shah.
1:12
Ш Щ!
So… Щ is similar to a typical English SH, and Ш is a Sean Connery SH? 😏
Sean still sounds too soft (medium), like a standard English "Sh")))
Выпьем за лююююбооовь
U didnt mention the "shch" phenomenon. While it is pronounced that way in ukrainian (i think, maybe that's why it's written like that at times), when ppl apply it to russian words it sounds horrible
And what about Ж?
Ж is pronounced exactly like Ш but is voiced.
Like French "je" or English "usually".
@@Temporale_Estivo83 that was helpful
@@ezequielstepanenko3229 Thanks.
Ж can be pronounced by some speakers as voiced Щ in words like уеЗЖать, дроЖЖи.
This video is for university student learning russian bery professional knowledge
Thank you for the kind words, however, this information is quite basic.
🤔🤔🤔🤯😵💫
I still can't spot the diference 😥
Team Clooney here
Sha and scha are very hard to pronounce in English.
😂
The latter one just sounds like the English sh to me
I thought it was "sh-tsh".
Хеллоу, ай ин раша
Привет, я из россии
Hello, i in Russia :)
ш = Sean Connery; щ = Donald Trump 😝
Щ isn't pronounced as shsh (šš) it's pronounced as shch (šč)
It is, in Russian
in standard russian its šš. but in some southern russian dialects near the ukrainian border its šč. this is also how it is in ukrainian belarusyn and polish.
YOUR PICTURES OF THE MOUTH IS HORRIBLE, IT ISN'T CLEARLY UNDERSTOOD AND UNDEPICTED BUT LOVE THE VIDEO.
i think I'll just learn Ukrainian instead
Hhahahaha
The Russians are dumb for using Щ for sh, because it literally is an combination of the letters Ш and Т (sht), BUT NOOO WE ARE RUSSIANS WE'RE GOING TO MAKE OUR OWN RULES!! How disrespectful towards such a beautiful script. Russians and Ukrainians don't deserve the Cyrillic
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
@@user-cd6yc8rq6f exactly, how russians look using it like that.
What the f*ck are you talking about, щ is not a шт at all.
@@neko2718_ In its origins it is. Old Church Slavonic, from which Russians comes from made use of щ as a letter both combined in its sound and looks of ш and т.
@@user-qq8ry3rr4k In any case, щ doesn't sound like шт at all, so there is no reason to use 2 letters instead of 1