Soft-sign following с (-сь) causes the с sound to shorten slightly. Again if you keep the tongue close to the front bottom teeth then you should be able to pronounce this subtle с sound quite easily. You may need to experiment with the tongue position a little so you make a clear с sound.
You may also like to restrict the movement of the side of the mouth. Normally when you say an 's' sound in English you move your lips in a slightly smiling motion, but with -сь you are trying to soften the sound so you don't need to pull the sides of your lips back quite as much.
You may also notice the soft-sign affects the syllable before the с. If you listen to the recordings below you may be able to hear that it slightly lengthens the syllable before с, but shortens the с.
The restrictive tongue position also softens any 'е' sound before the -сь (-есь), as described in Lesson 8d.
Get acquainted - [nonsense word]
познакомьтесь - познакомьтес
Pronounced:
paz-na-kOm-tes' - paz-na-kom-tyes
Listen:
(Lena)
Listen:
(Lena)
Here - [nonsense word]
здесь - здес
Pronounced:
zdyes' - zdyes
Listen:
(Lena)
Listen:
(Lena)
All - weight
весь - вес
Pronounced:
vyes' - vyes
Listen:
(Lena)
Listen:
(Lena)
Afraid - [nonsense word]
боясь - бояс
Pronounced:
ba-YAs' - ba-yas
Listen:
(Lena)
Listen:
(Lena)
Letter - [nonsense word]
письмо - писмо
Pronounced:
pis'-mO - pis-mo
Listen:
(Lena)
Listen:
(Lena)
Stressed?
We probably don't need to remind you again ... when the Russian letter 'o' appears in a word, but is not stressed, then it is pronounced as a Russian 'a'.
If the 'o' is stressed (the syllable which is emphasised), then it is pronounced normally as a Russian 'o'.
