Soft sign in Russian
Russian letter: ь
The Russian letter ь, called "the soft sign", has no sound. Instead, it changes the sound of the preceding consonant making it soft.
There are no words in Russian starting from the ь, therefore we don't display it in big caps.
Below we included words and syllables with and without the ь, so you can hear the difference.
Writing
Printed 1
ь
Printed 2
ь
Printed 3
ь
Cursive
ь
Hand-written 1
Hand-written 2
ь
Pronunciation
Actual sound
Transcription
[ ' ]
How to pronounce
does not have its own sound
Pronunciation tips
Practice the syllables and words to understand the difference between when the ь is there and not.
Practice with syllables
- аль
- пья
- ал
- пя
- рья
- ря
Words with this letter
With stress marks
царь
Cursive / Handwritten
царь
царь
царь
Transcription / Translation
[ tsar' ]
tsar
tsar
Pronunciation tips
With stress marks
сельдь
Cursive / Handwritten
сельдь
сельдь
сельдь
Transcription / Translation
[ syel'd' ]
herring
herring
Pronunciation tips
With stress marks
ель
Cursive / Handwritten
ель
ель
ель
Transcription / Translation
[ yel' ]
fir (tree)
fir (tree)
Pronunciation tips
With stress marks
кон
Cursive / Handwritten
кон
кон
кон
Transcription / Translation
[ kon ]
game, round
game, round
Pronunciation tips
With stress marks
конь
Cursive / Handwritten
конь
конь
конь
Transcription / Translation
[ kon' ]
horse
horse
Pronunciation tips
With stress marks
паро́ль
Cursive / Handwritten
пароль
пароль
пароль
Transcription / Translation
[ pa-ról' ]
password
password
Pronunciation tips
Practice with a worksheet
Practice the hand-written Russian letter Ь as well as the syllables and words listed above, with this worksheet: download the worksheet.
I really like this site. Thanks a lot. I’m from Chile
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