VOICED AND VOICELESS CONSONANTS

Place your fingers on your vocal chords and say the sounds (not the names of the letters) in the chart below.

в
з
ж
б
г
д
Vocal chords vibrate (VOICED)
ф
с
ш
п
к
т
Vocal chords do not vibrate
(VOICELESS)

Two rules affect these consonants:

Click PLAY and look at the table. Listen to the recording while reading the following:

 

1. Word final devoicing

Voiced consonants at the end of words are pronounced voiceless.

We write:
We say:
   
Чехов Чехо[ф]
джаз джа[с]
гараж гара[ш]
сноб сно[п]
маркетинг маркетин[к]
Мадрид Мадри[т]

 

2. Voiceled - voiceless assimilation

When voiced and voiceless consonants are adjacent to each other, the nature of the second consonant dictates the nature of the first. To put it more succinctly, when two consonants go walking, the second one does the talking:

voiced + voiceless ----> voiceless + voiceless
   
в Киеве [ф К]иеве
субтитры су[пт]итры
   
voiceless + voiced ----> voiced + voiced
   
баскетбол баске[дб]ол
Питсбург Пи[дзб]ург
вас зовут ва[з з]овут