Russian Pod 101

Russian letter: Ж ж

New look, familiar sound Order in the alphabet: 8

The letter Ж looks like a beetle and has a sound which is close to the one that beetles make - zh.

Interestingly enough, beetle in Russian is жук, i.e. starts with the letter Ж.

Ж and Ш form a pair where Ж is voiced and Ш is voiceless.

When at the end of a word or followed by a voiceless consonant, Ж sounds more like Ш.

Ж is always hard, i.e. it does not get softened by following vowels.

Writing

Printed 1
Ж ж
Printed 2
Ж ж
Printed 3
Ж ж
Cursive
Ж ж
Hand-written 1
blank
Hand-written 2
Ж ж

Pronunciation

As in the alphabet
Actual sound
Transcription
[ zh ]
How to pronounce
like s in pleasure
Pronunciation tips

When at the end of a word or followed by a voiceless consonant, Ж sounds more like Ш.

Practice with syllables

  • жа
  • жо
  • жи
  • же
  • ож
  • иж
  • еж
  • аж
blankblank

Words with this letter

Audio
With stress marks
джем
Cursive / Handwritten
джем
джем
Transcription / Translation
[ dzhem ]
jam
Pronunciation tips
Audio
With stress marks
жа́ло
Cursive / Handwritten
жало
жало
Transcription / Translation
[ zhá-la ]
sting
Pronunciation tips

Unstressed О sounds like А.

Audio
With stress marks
са́жа
Cursive / Handwritten
сажа
сажа
Transcription / Translation
[ sá-zha ]
soot
Pronunciation tips
Audio
With stress marks
ко́жа
Cursive / Handwritten
кожа
кожа
Transcription / Translation
[ kó-zha ]
skin
Pronunciation tips

Practice with a worksheet

Practice the hand-written Russian letter Ж as well as the syllables and words listed above, with this worksheet: download the worksheet.