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As you know, speech sounds can be divided into vowels (pronounced only by voice) and consonants (noise is involved in their pronunciation). Many consonants can be paired according to their characteristics, but not all.

Paired and unpaired consonants according to deafness-voicing

It should be noted right away that there are only four such sounds that are unpaired in all respects. We'll talk about them at the end of the article. The majority fits into a couple based on one characteristic, but not on another. Therefore, it makes no sense to write about the consonant “unpaired” - you need to indicate on what basis.

Consonants differ in deafness and voicedness. This means that when pronouncing some of them, more voice is used (sonorant, voiced), while others use more noise (voiceless) or even just one noise (hissing).

Sonorants are very sonorous consonants, they have a lot of voice, but little noise.

Two sonorant consonants - [L] and [R] - can even, under some circumstances, form a syllable, that is, behave like vowels. Surely you have come across the erroneous spelling “theator”. It is explained precisely by the fact that [P] in this word is syllabic. Other examples are the words “Alexander”, “meaning”.

Unpaired voiced consonant sounds are just sonorant sounds. There are five of them:

Sometimes [Y] is not classified as sonorant, but it still remains voiced unpaired. Let's look at the table.

It shows that, in addition to unpaired voiced sounds, there are also unpaired unpaired sounds. Most of them are fizzy; Only the dull unpaired consonant sound [Ts] does not belong to hissing sounds.

In this article we consider only Russian speech sounds. In other languages, the pairing may be different. For example, in the Tibetan language there is a voiceless pair to a voiced [L].

Hardness-softness pairs

In addition to deafness and voicedness, Russian consonants form pairs based on hardness and softness.

This means that some of them are perceived by ear as softer. Then we usually indicate this in writing somehow: for example, we write soft sign or one of the vowels E, Yo, Yu, Ya.

Oral speech is primary (everyone understands that it appeared before written speech), so it is incorrect to say: “The sound [N’] in the word HORSE is soft, because it is followed by b.” On the contrary, we write b because H' is soft.

According to hardness-softness, consonants also form pairs. But even in this case, not everything. In the Russian language there are unpaired soft and unpaired hard consonants.

Unpaired hard consonant sounds are mainly hissing sounds ([Zh], [Sh]) and [C]. They always form at the far palate.

But in the ancestor of our language, Old Church Slavonic, on the contrary, [ZH] and [SH] were always soft and did not have a hard pair. Then [K], [G] and [X] were not soft. Nowadays you can find (once the only possible) pronunciation with a soft [Zh’] [DROZH’ZH’I] or [DOZH’] (rain), but this is no longer necessary.

Unpaired soft ones are [Y’] and again hissing [H’] and [Ш’].

That is, all hissing ones are either always hard or always soft. The letter b after them does not indicate softness, it performs a grammatical function (for example, even without knowing what “baldness” is, anyone will immediately say that this is the word female, because in masculine b is not placed after sibilants). Hard unpaired hissing consonant sounds in a word may have b with them, but this does not mean that they should soften. This means that we have a 3rd declension noun, an adverb or a verb.

Unpaired soft consonant sounds in a word make you want to put b after them, which is often not required. Therefore, it makes sense to remember that in combinations CHK, CHN, etc. b after h is not needed.

The sounds are “completely unpaired”

In the Russian language, most consonants are either paired according to both characteristics, or paired according to one characteristic and unpaired according to another. For example, in the word [P'EN'] (stump) the sound [P'] is paired both in deafness-voicing (P' - B'), and in hardness-softness (P' - P), and the sound [N'] is paired in terms of hardness-softness (N' - N), but unpaired in deafness-voiceness.

However, there are several sounds that are unpaired in both characteristics. These are the sounds [Y'] (unpaired voiced, unpaired soft), [Ch'] (unpaired soft, unpaired deaf), [Sh'] (unpaired soft, unpaired deaf) and [Ts] (unpaired hard, unpaired deaf). Such sounds are often made in Russian language Olympiads. For example,“Guess the sound by its characteristics: unpaired hard, unpaired dull.” We already see that this is [C].

What have we learned?

From the article about paired and unpaired consonants, we learned that in the Russian language there are both paired and unpaired consonants. Paired consonants differ in deafness-voicing and in hardness-softness.

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Sound is the smallest unit of language pronounced with the help of the organs of the speech apparatus. Scientists have discovered that at birth, the human ear perceives all the sounds it hears. All this time his brain sorts unnecessary information, and by 8-10 months a person is able to distinguish sounds that are exclusively native language, and all the nuances of pronunciation.

33 letters make up the Russian alphabet, 21 of them are consonants, but letters must be distinguished from sounds. A letter is a sign, a symbol that can be seen or written. The sound can only be heard and pronounced, and in writing it can be designated using transcription - [b], [c], [d]. They carry a certain semantic load, connecting with each other to form words.

36 consonant sounds: [b], [z], [v], [d], [g], [zh], [m], [n], [k], [l], [t], [p ], [t], [s], [sch], [f], [ts], [w], [x], [h], [b"], [z"], [v"], [ d"], [th"], [n"], [k"], [m"], [l"], [t"], [s"], [p"], [r"], [ f"], [g"], [x"].

Consonant sounds are divided into:

  • soft and hard;
  • voiced and voiceless;

    paired and unpaired.

Soft and hard consonants

The phonetics of the Russian language is significantly different from many other languages. It contains hard and soft consonants.

When pronouncing a soft sound, the tongue is pressed harder against the palate than when pronouncing a hard consonant sound, preventing the release of air. This is what distinguishes a hard and soft consonant sound from each other. In order to determine in writing whether a consonant sound is soft or hard, you should look at the letter immediately after the specific consonant.

Consonant sounds are classified as hard in the following cases:

  • if letters a, o, u, e, s follow after them - [poppy], [rum], [hum], [juice], [bull];
  • after them there is another consonant sound - [vors], [hail], [marriage];
  • if the sound is at the end of the word - [darkness], [friend], [table].

The softness of sound is written as an apostrophe: mole - [mol’], chalk - [m’el], wicket - [kal’itka], pir - [p’ir].

It should be noted that the sounds [ш'], [й'], [ч'] are always soft, and hard consonants are only [ш], [тс], [ж].

A consonant sound will become soft if it is followed by “b” and vowels: i, e, yu, i, e. For example: gen - [g"en], flax - [l"on], disk - [d"ysk] , hatch - [l "uk", elm - [v "yaz", trill - [tr "el"].

Voiced and voiceless, paired and unpaired sounds

Based on their sonority, consonants are divided into voiced and voiceless. Voiced consonants can be sounds created with the participation of the voice: [v], [z], [zh], [b], [d], [y], [m], [d], [l], [r] , [n].

Examples: [bor], [ox], [shower], [call], [heat], [goal], [fishing], [pestilence], [nose], [genus], [swarm].

Examples: [kol], [floor], [volume], [sleep], [noise], [shch"uka], [choir], [king"], [ch"an].

Paired voiced and voiceless consonants include: [b] - [p], [zh] - [w], [g] - [x], [z] - [s]. [d] - [t], [v] - [f]. Examples: reality - dust, house - volume, year - code, vase - phase, itch - court, live - sew.

Sounds that do not form pairs: [h], [n], [ts], [x], [r], [m], [l].

Soft and hard consonants can also have a pair: [p] - [p"], [p] - [p"], [m] - [m"], [v] - [v"], [d] - [ d"], [f] - [f"], [k] - [k"], [z] - [z"], [b] - [b"], [g] - [g"], [ n] - [n"], [s] - [s"], [l] - [l"], [t] - [t"], [x] - [x"]. Examples: byl - bel, height - branch, city - cheetah, dacha - business, umbrella - zebra, skin - cedar, moon - summer, monster - place, finger - feather, ore - river, soda - sulfur, pillar - steppe, lantern - farm, mansions - hut.

Table for memorizing consonants

To clearly see and compare soft and hard consonants, the table below shows them in pairs.

Table. Consonants: hard and soft

Solid - before the letters A, O, U, Y, E

Soft - before the letters I, E, E, Yu, I

Hard and soft consonants
bballb"battle
VhowlV"eyelid
GgarageG"hero
dholed"tar
hashz"yawn
TogodfatherTo"sneakers
lvinel"foliage
mMarchm"month
nlegn"tenderness
PspiderP"song
RheightR"rhubarb
WithsaltWith"hay
TcloudT"patience
fphosphorusf"firm
XthinnessX"chemistry
Unpairedandgiraffehmiracle
wscreenschhazel
tstargetthfelt

Another table will help you remember consonant sounds.

Table. Consonants: voiced and voiceless
DoublesVoicedDeaf
BP
INF
GTO
DT
ANDSh
ZWITH
UnpairedL, M, N, R, JX, C, Ch, Shch

Children's poems for better mastery of the material

There are exactly 33 letters in the Russian alphabet,

To find out how many consonants -

Subtract ten vowels

Signs - hard, soft -

It will immediately become clear:

The resulting number is exactly twenty-one.

Soft and hard consonants are very different,

But not dangerous at all.

If we pronounce it with noise, then they are deaf.

The consonant sounds proudly say:

They sound different.

Hard and soft

In fact, very light.

Remember one simple rule forever:

W, C, F - always hard,

But Ch, Shch, J are only soft,

Like a cat's paws.

And let’s soften others like this:

If we add a soft sign,

Then we get spruce, moth, salt,

What a cunning sign!

And if we add the vowels I, I, Yo, E, Yu,

We get a soft consonant.

Brother signs, soft, hard,

We don't pronounce

But to change the word,

Let's ask for their help.

The rider rides on a horse,

Con - we use it in the game.

In any text, it is very important to avoid mistakes, especially those related to paired consonants, because it is by their presence or absence that a person’s literacy level will be judged. Sometimes it is completely unclear which letter should appear in certain words, and therefore mistakes are often made in their spelling. The main reason The reason why this happens is the discrepancy in pronunciation and designation of them in writing.

For example, in the word “mushroom”, when pronounced, we clearly hear the sound “p”, but we always write “b”. In order to be sure of this, you need to check its designation. Test words help us with this. In our case, we can simply change the number, resulting in the word “mushrooms”, where exactly we hear ringing sound"b". First, we need to say that any paired consonant in a word can be in a weak or strong position. If a paired consonant is followed by a vowel or a sonorant consonant, including L, M, N, R, then we can say for sure that the position of the paired consonant is strong. If a paired consonant is located at the end of a word, or is followed by another paired consonant, this means that it is in a weak position. It is quite clear that in order to check the correct spelling we will have to change the word to bring it into strong position. To be sure of the correct spelling, you can use a check such as changing the number, as described above. In this case, after the consonant being tested, a vowel sound is heard. However, please note that if you need to check a letter in the middle of a word, then this method will not work for you. For example, the word “frost”: change the number and get “frost”, in this word we clearly hear the sound “z”. But in the word “fish” in the plural we get “fish” - as we see, the situation has not changed, we still hear “p”. Many people may write this by mistake, but this method cannot be used to check this word.


Checking paired consonants located in the middle of a word is done differently. It is necessary to select words with the same root in such a way that after the sound we are checking there is a voiced consonant sound. In the word “fish”, to correctly check the pair “b”, we select a word with the same root, for example, “fisherman”. Now you can be sure that we will write the letter “b” here. If a paired consonant letter is in a prefix, then its spelling is subject to slightly different rules. In prefixes that end in z or s, which are voz-, vz-, bez-, raz-, niz-, and so on, only s is written before voiceless consonants; in all other cases, z should be written. For example: useless, bite, price, take advantage; but take a nap, fail-safe, excite, wear out, bring down, and so on.


There are words in which checking the correct spelling is impossible. These include, for example, “tomorrow”, “breakfast”, “suddenly”. In this case, they must be remembered. If you find it difficult to do this, you can always use a dictionary.


From all of the above, one simple conclusion can be drawn: in order to know exactly how to correctly write a paired consonant that you doubt, put it in a strong position, that is, make sure that it is followed by a vowel or a sonorant consonant. In the case of prefixes, always take into account the sound following the paired consonant. And if checking a word is not possible, use a dictionary.

In this lesson we will learn to distinguish between voiced and voiceless consonant sounds and denote them in writing with consonant letters. Let's find out which consonants are called paired and unpaired according to their voicing - deafness, sonorant and hissing.

Voiced and voiceless consonants

Let's remember how speech sounds are born. When a person begins to speak, he exhales air from his lungs. It runs along the windpipe into the narrow larynx, where special muscles are located - vocal cords. If a person pronounces consonants, he closes his mouth (at least a little), which causes noise. But consonants make different noises.

Let's conduct an experiment: cover our ears and pronounce the sound [p], and then the sound [b]. When we pronounced the sound [b], the ligaments became tense and began to tremble. This trembling turned into a voice. There was a slight ringing in my ears.

You can conduct a similar experiment by placing your hands on the neck on the right and left sides and pronouncing the sounds [d] and [t]. The sound [d] is pronounced much louder, more sonorous. Scientists call these sounds sonorous, and sounds that consist only of noise - deaf.

Paired consonant sounds in terms of voicedness and deafness

Let's try to divide the sounds into two groups according to the method of pronunciation. Let's populate phonetic houses in the city of sounds. Let's agree: dull sounds will live on the first floor, and voiced sounds will live on the second floor. Residents of the first house:

[b] [d] [h] [G] [V] [and]
[P] [T] [With] [To] [f] [w]

These consonant sounds are called paired by sonority - deafness.

Rice. 1. Paired voiced and voiceless consonants ()

They are very similar to each other - real “twins”, they are pronounced almost identically: the lips form the same way, the tongue moves the same way. But they also have pairs of softness and hardness. Let's add them to the house.

[b] [b’] [d] [d’] [h] [z’] [G] [G'] [V] [V'] [and]
[P] [P'] [T] [T'] [With] [With'] [To] [To'] [f] [f’] [w]

The sounds [zh] and [sh] do not have paired soft sounds, they always hard. And they are also called sizzling sounds.

All these sounds are indicated by letters:

[b] [b’]
[P] [P']
[d] [d’]
[T] [T']
[h] [z’]
[With] [With']
[G] [G']
[To] [To']
[V] [V']
[f] [f’]
[and]
[w]

Unpaired voiced consonants

But not all consonant sounds and letters form pairs. Those consonants that do not have pairs are called unpaired. Let's put unpaired consonant sounds in our houses.

To the second house - unpairedvoiced consonants sounds:

Let us remind you that the sound [th’] always just soft. Therefore, he will live alone in our house. These sounds are represented in writing by letters:

[l] [l’]

(ale)

[m] [m’]
[n] [n’]
[R] [R']
[th’]

(and short)

The sounds of the second house are also called sonorous , because they are formed with the help of the voice and almost without noise, they are very sonorous. The word “sonorant” is translated from the Latin “sonorus” meaning sonorous.

Unpaired voiceless consonants

We will put you in the third house unpaired voiceless consonants sounds:

[X] [X'] [ts] [h’] [sch']

Let us remember that the sound [ts] is always solid, and [h’] and [sch’] - always soft. Unpaired voiceless consonants are indicated in writing by letters:

[X] [X']
[ts]
[h’]
[sch']

Sounds [h’], [h’] - sizzling sounds.

So we populated our city with consonant sounds and letters. Now it’s immediately clear why there are 21 consonant letters and 36 sounds.

Rice. 2. Voiced and voiceless consonants ()

Consolidating knowledge in practice

Let's complete the tasks.

1. Consider the pictures and turn one word into another, replacing only one sound. Hint: remember pairs of consonant sounds.

d points - point

b glasses - kidney

w ar - heat

fishing rod - duck

2. There are riddles, the meaning of which lies in the knowledge of consonant sounds, they are called charades. Try to guess them:

1) With a deaf consonant I pour into the field,
With the ringing one - I myself am ringing to the expanse . (Kolos - voice)

2) With a deaf person - she cuts the grass,
With a voiced sound, it eats the leaves. (Scythe - goat)

3) With “em” - pleasant, golden, very sweet and fragrant.
With the letter “el” it appears in winter, but disappears in spring . (Honey - ice)

In order to develop the ability to pronounce certain sounds, especially hissing ones, they learn tongue twisters. The tongue twister is told slowly at first, and then the pace is accelerated. Let's try to learn tongue twisters:

  1. Six little mice rustle in the reeds.
  2. The hedgehog has a hedgehog, the snake has a squeeze.
  3. Two puppies were chewing a brush in the corner, cheek to cheek.

So, today we learned that consonant sounds can be voiced and unvoiced and how these sounds are indicated in writing.

  1. Andrianova T.M., Ilyukhina V.A. Russian language 1. M.: Astrel, 2011. ().
  2. Buneev R.N., Buneeva E.V., Pronina O.V. Russian language 1. M.: Ballas. ().
  3. Agarkova N.G., Agarkov Yu.A. Textbook for teaching literacy and reading: ABC. Academic book/textbook.
  1. Fictionbook.ru ().
  2. Deafnet.ru ().
  3. Samouchka.com.ua ().
  1. Andrianova T.M., Ilyukhina V.A. Russian language 1. M.: Astrel, 2011. Pp. 38, ex. 2; Page 39, ex. 6; Page 43, ex. 4.
  2. Count how many voiced consonants and how many voiceless consonants are in a word unsatisfactory ? (Voiced consonants - 9 - N, D, V, L, V, R, L, N, Y, various - 6, voiceless consonants - 2 - T, T, various - 1.).
  3. Read the proverb: « Know how to speak at the right time, and be silent at the right time.” Name the letters that represent voiced consonants. (Voiced consonant sounds in the proverb are represented by the letters M, J, V, R, Z, L.)
  4. 4* Using the knowledge gained in the lesson, write a fairy tale or draw a comic book on the theme “In the city of consonant sounds.”

In the Russian language, not all speech sounds are designated, but only the main ones. The Russian language has 43 basic sounds - 6 vowels and 37 consonants, while the number of letters is 33. The number of basic vowels (10 letters, but 6 sounds) and consonants (21 letters, but 37 sounds) also does not match. The difference in the quantitative composition of basic sounds and letters is determined by the peculiarities of Russian writing. In Russian, a hard and soft sound is denoted by the same letter, but the sounds soft and hard are considered different, which is why there are more consonant sounds than the letters with which they are denoted.

Voiced and voiceless consonants

Consonant sounds are divided into voiced and voiceless. Voiced ones consist of noise and voice, deaf ones consist only of noise.

Voiced consonant sounds: [b] [b"] [c] [v"] [d] [g"] [d] [d"] [z] [z"] [zh] [l] [l"] [ m] [m"] [n] [n"] [r] [r"] [th]

Voiceless consonants: [p] [p"] [f] [f"] [k] [k"] [t] [t"] [s] [s"] [w] [x] [x"] [ h"] [h"]

Paired and unpaired consonants

Many consonants form pairs of voiced and voiceless consonants:

Voiced [b] [b"] [c] [c"] [d] [g"] [d] [d"] [z] [z"] [g]

Voiceless [p] [p"] [f] [f"] [k] [k"] [t] [t"] [s] [s"] [w]

The following voiced and voiceless consonant sounds do not form pairs:

Voiced [l] [l"] [m] [m"] [n] [n"] [r] [r"] [th]

Voiceless [x] [x"] [ch"] [sch"]

Soft and hard consonants

Consonant sounds are also divided into hard and soft. They differ in the position of the tongue when pronounced. When pronouncing soft consonants, the middle back of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate.

Most consonants form pairs of hard and soft consonants:

Solid [b] [c] [d] [d] [h] [j] [l] [m] [n] [p] [r] [s] [t] [f] [x]

Soft [b"] [c"] [d"] [d"] [h"] [k"] [l"] [m"] [n"] [p"] [p"] [s"] [ t"] [f"] [x"]




The following hard and soft consonant sounds do not form pairs:

Solid [f] [w] [c]

Soft [h"] [sch"] [th"]

Sibilant consonants

The sounds [zh], [sh], [ch’], [sh’] are called hissing.

[g] [w] [h"] [sch"]

Whistling consonants

[z] [z"] [s] [s"] [ts]

Whistling sounds s-s, z-z, anterior lingual, fricative. When articulating solids the teeth are exposed, the tip of the tongue touches the lower teeth, the back of the tongue is slightly curved, the lateral edges of the tongue are pressed against the upper molars, causing a groove to form in the middle. Air passes through this groove creating frictional noise.

When pronouncing soft s, s, the articulation is the same, but in addition the back of the tongue rises to the hard palate. When pronouncing sounds z-z, the ligaments are closed and vibrate. The velum is raised.