### Stresses Like other languages, each word in Russian will have a **stress**, this helps with pronunciation. For example with the English word "Rocket", you will put more stress on the "O" vowel than the "E" vowel. It's exactly the same with Russian however, when a vowel is **unstressed** it can also change how the vowel is sounded. |**Stressed**|**Unstressed**| |:-------------:|:-------------:| |о|а| |е|и| <br> ### Voiced and Voiceless Consonants As in English, some Russian consonant sounds are produced with the vibration of the vocal cords. For example, making the sound "**zzzz**" vibrates your vocal cords and making the sound "**ssss**" does not. In this case, "Z" can be considered a **voiced** consonant whereas "S" can be considered a **voiceless** consonant. In the Russian language, there are 6 key pairs of voiced and voiceless consonants: |**Voiced**|**Voiceless**| |:-------------:|:-------------:| |в|ф| |г|к| |з|с| |б|п| |д|т| |ж|ш| In Russian pronunciation, all voiced consonants that fall at the end of a word are **devoiced** and **pronounced** like their voiceless counterparts. This devoicing of consonants is formally known as **Consonant Assimilation**. For example the word friend, "дру**г**" is pronounced as if it were spelt "дру**к**". **Devoicing** also occurs when a voiced consonant is in front of a voiceless consonant. For example the word spoon, "ло**ж**ка". The voiced consonant "**ж**" is in front of voiceless consonant "**к**". Thus, "**ж**" will become voiceless and will be pronounced as "**ш**". as if it were spelt "ло**ш**ка". **ударение** = stress