Vowel Reduction in Russian: /a/ after ч, щ

We've learned that two consonants - ч and щ - are always soft (palatalized); but writing я after them would violate a spelling rule. In this video we'll take a close look at how to pronounce these combinations, with special attention to what happens with vowel reduction.
It's the kind of nuance that helps your pronunciation sound natural in words like пло́щадь, начала́, and whenever you talk about telling the time with часа́ and часо́в.
If you find these videos helpful as you explore this rich, complex language, please consider supporting the channel by buying me a coffee. Спасибо!
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[@jpaulo_ap]

Thank you for your channel. Everytime I think I already most things about Russian grammar and pronunciation, I watch your videos and learn something new that I hadn't figured out Большое спасибо 🙏🏼

[@justjordiano]

Спасибо большое

[@fmaylinch]

Now I understand why "сколько стоит/стоят?" sound the same.

[@ryori4176]

You are а rock star...Спасибо большое вам

[@ypcf0122]

Редукцию гласных охуенно объяснил! Я все 3 видео проверил. И да, подмечено верно: нет 100% уверенности в правилах (в указанных здесь транскрипциях есть мелкие неточности). Я вообще не уверен, что в IPA достаточно символов для редуцированных гласных как в английском, так и в русском. Но без IPA объяснить редукцию вообще нереально(( Если спросить носителя языка, как произносится "хорошо", он по слогам скажет "ха-ра-шо", то есть вообще без редукции. И именно так российских школьников и учат, а символы IPA наши школьники видят лишь в англо-русских словарях.

[@arthurviolin]

That's why the syllable "tcha" of the composer's name "Tchaikovsky" (Чайко́вский) sounds like "Tchii"?

[@russiangrammar]

Exactly! :)

[@music_appreciation]

@@russiangrammar And this is one of the hardest words in the whole Russian language for me (personally) to pronounce properly, along with обычай, случай etc... because the stressed diphthong АЙ is a sound I know in English (the vowel in "price"), but the unstressed ИЙ isn't and I can find no explanation anywhere of how it's pronounced!

[@russiangrammar]

TBH the less you worry about it, the better. :) I knew someone who carefully pronounced the й in хороший, большой much like the 'ch' in German 'ich,' but many (most?) don't. In an unstressed syllable, and not at the end of a word, you can pronounce the first syllable of Чайковский like English "cheek," ignoring the й. You can hear some samples of this in isolation at soundcloud.com/user-802808656-868223762/unstressed-a-after-soft?si=3304f4c3d0c844f3ab440b462633d733&

[@henrym5034]

high quality as always :)

[@russiangrammar]

Спасибо!

[@spacer0cket783]

Do you have a video about using "бы"? Im breaking my mind trying to understand. Love your channel man.

[@russiangrammar]

Thanks for the feedback! :) бы can be used in several ways; here's a video on using it for hypothetical, contrary-to-fact situations ("if it weren't so hot, I'd go outside"). kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJ64dZ9vZ5V8ga8

[@mienoolennfhouskka4697]

Hello there. Can you tell about this phrases, because they looks differently but have one means. Why native speakers used confusing form of time? (First speaker Пошли читать? = secon Пойдём читать!) First said with a past form, but second answer with a future form 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️ and both do it right now this act, they are going to read something

[@russiangrammar]

Expressing "let's..." with a perfective verb is generally давай(-те) + perf. future (посмотрим, прочитаем), but with motion verbs давай(-те) is often left out, as in Пойдём поглуяем, покушаем... "Let's go walk around, have a bite to eat." Using the past пошли (or поехали) is also very common in an informal style. Sometimes -те is added to get пойдёмте (but best to avoid this with пошли or поехали). This web page has a little poem to remember the forms: mel.fm/gramotnost/gramotny-otvet/5028136-kakoye-slovo-lishneye-poydemte-idemte-ili-poshlite

[@wisdomseeker0142]

Why is the chyeste/shyestye pronounced with an e sound when it’s an a spelling again ? At 2:04?

[@russiangrammar]

Do you mean the 'a' in сча́стье? Note that it's in a stressed syllable, so it won't be reduced like the 'a' in часы́. You may be noticing something not covered in this video: the basic /a/ sound, when stressed and in between soft consonants, tends to be pronounced something like the 'a' in English 'cat' ([æ]). That's because soft consonants are pronounced with the tongue raised, and in the flow of natural speech, the tongue won't go back & down far enough for a true [a] sound (as in 'father' or та́м). You can also hear this in the contrast between за́л [zál] and взя́ли [vzʲǽlʲi], or ся́дь [sʲǽtʲ] and са́д [sát].

[@wisdomseeker0142]

@@russiangrammar interesting I guess I misheard because the woman pronounced cat like ket. Also the three examples for the contrast starting with zal dont have the reduced (ii) sound for the letter (ya) despite the fact it’s unstressed . Why is that? I thought unstressed e and Ya were pronounced as (ii) when unstressed.

[@wisdomseeker0142]

@@russiangrammar wait also do one wor syllables in Russian that are unstressed have a different set of rules like zal? Or CaD like you’ve said earlier. I can pronounce the vowels without reducing them?

[@russiangrammar]

I've just added stress marks in my reply for за́л, взя́ли, ся́дь, and са́д for clarity. Since vowels can vary in different varieties of English, perhaps we shouldn't worry too much about 'cat' vs. 'get,' etc. - best just to listen to the native speaker as she pronounces сча́стье; that's a good model for how to pronounce this sound when stressed and between soft consonants. It's the same vowel sound as in ся́дь and взя́ли: we're spelling it with 'a,' not я, because of the 8-letter spelling rule.

[@russiangrammar]

Nearly all words in Russian (including words of a single syllable) have a stressed syllable; exceptions are prepositions and a few other words like же, ведь. :)