Russian Lessons Online:
Vowel Reduction: Unstressed Е

In Russian language unstressed vowels are shorter than stressed ones. Besides that, such vowels as А, О, Э and the vowels denoted as and ‘Е’, ‘Я’ change their pronunciation. In this lesson we will examine pronunciation of unstressed ‘е’.

When unstressed ‘е’ appears at the beginning of the word and after the letters ‘ъ’ and ‘ь’, it specifies the diphthong [йи]:
ено́т – yee-nót
съеда́л – syee-dál

After vowels and consonants unstressed ‘е’ is not different from ‘и’:
ребро́м – rib-róm
без на́с – biz-nás
поеда́л – pə-ee-dál
зна́ет – zná-it

Please, watch the video to know how to pronounce final unstressed ‘е’ and to listen to the correct pronunciation of Russian words with unstressed ‘е’.

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