At home and on the street, we can hear many sounds: human footsteps, the ticking of a clock, the sound of rain, the singing of birds, the horn of a car. However, the sounds of human speech stand apart and differ from others, because with their help you can form words. It is known that all sounds of the Russian language are divided into two groups: consonants and vowels. When forming vowels for air, there is no barrier in the oral cavity. But in the case of the pronunciation of consonants in the oral cavity, an obstacle arises. So, what can be what groups they are divided into, what does the expression "paired consonants" mean?

Voiceless and voiced consonants

The division into these groups is as follows: voiced consonants are pronounced with the help of noise and voice, but the deaf ones consist of one noise. The first and second can form pairs of deafness / sonority. Correlative pairing is represented by 12 rows. For example: "d" - "t", "g" - "k", "z" - "s" and others. Such sounds are paired consonants. But not all consonants can pair up. They are not formed by voiced "n", "m", "l", "d", "r", as well as deaf "c", "x", "u", "h". On the letter, sounds are indicated by the corresponding letters. It's important to be careful. Paired and unpaired consonants at the end of a word or in the middle before a consonant may sound the same, but be marked with different letters. To check their spelling, you need to find a word with the same root, so that after the checked consonant there is a vowel, and the sound leaves no doubt about the spelling. For example:

gris b- gri b s, gri pp- gri pp ozny;

ro t- ro t ova (cavity), ro d- ro d ova (castle).

Depending on the position of the tongue during the pronunciation of sounds, all consonants are divided into hard and soft. They are different phonemes. Paired consonants and unpaired consonants are distinguished. Examples of pairs: "in" - "in," , "k" - "k," , "p" - "p," and others. icon ( , ) denotes the softness of the sound during transcription. Steam does not form soft "u", "h", "d", as well as always solid "w", "g", "c". Of course, it is very important to distinguish between paired consonant sounds, hard and soft. Sometimes they even distinguish words. For example:

m ate - m ol, me l- me l b.

AT " m ate" and "me l b "highlighted consonants are soft, and in words" m ol" and "me l"- solid. Thanks to this special pronunciation, words are not confused.

When writing words, the softness of consonants can be indicated in the following ways:

• With the help of "y". For example: skates, elk, hit.
• Using the letters "i", "i", "e", "ё", "yu". These cases are: a wheel, a toss, a ball.

It is important to remember that in the middle of a word before a consonant, softness is not indicated by a soft sign in the following combinations: "st", "schn", "nt", "rshch", "chn", "chk", "nshch", "nch". Pay attention to the words: LF ina, spo rsh itza, mo st iki. In the highlighted combinations, the first consonant is heard softly, but is written without

The letters "ya", "e", "ё", "yu" can represent the vowels "a", "e", "o", "y" + the softness of the consonant in front of them. In other cases (at the beginning of a word, after after "b", "b") they mean two sounds. And before the sound "and" consonants will always be pronounced softly.

So, one could notice that the creation of pairs is a feature that is very characteristic of the consonant system of the Russian language. Paired consonants are combined into groups and at the same time opposed to each other. Often they help to distinguish words.

In Russian, not all consonants can be both hard and soft. For example, in the word "song" after C is H and we mark C as a hard consonant. In writing, the hardness and softness of consonant sounds is indicated only when writing transcription. Find consonant sounds that sound before voiced paired consonants.

So, consider vowel sounds, which are divided into hard and soft. Pay attention to consonants that sound at the end of a word and before voiceless consonants. 5 letters, 6 sounds). But not all consonants and letters form pairs. Those consonants that do not have pairs are called unpaired.

Make such a reminder to the child and let it help him in distinguishing between hard and soft sounds. Apply all these methods at once and the child will learn to identify hard and soft consonants without problems. Although these consonants are paired, they are still very different. First, the child learns to understand how letters are divided into vowels and consonants. Here it is quite easy to determine the hard sound of a consonant or soft.

Having remembered this simple rule, children no longer experience difficulties in determining the hardness and softness of individual consonants if they are followed by a vowel. If, when pronouncing a word or syllable, the corners of the mouth part in a smile (i.e. one of the vowels i, e, e, u, and follows the consonant), then this consonant sound is soft. Phonetics gives a clear idea of ​​whether a consonant will be voiced or deaf. To memorize and distinguish voiced consonants from deaf ones, we divide them into pairs. There are 11 of them in total, if we take into account soft consonants (exception -) -; -; -; -; -.

In each case, there are consonants that have a pair, as well as consonants that do not have a pair. Let's look at paired and unpaired consonants, and in what words they occur. In an unstressed position, vowels are pronounced less clearly and sound with a shorter duration (i.e., they are reduced). When letters that normally represent voiceless consonants are voiced when voiced, it seems so unusual that it can lead to errors in transcription.

In tasks related to comparing the number of letters and sounds in a word, there may be "traps" that provoke errors. If a person pronounces consonant sounds, then he closes (at least a little) his mouth, because of this, noise is obtained. But consonants make noise in different ways.

Which sounds are always hard and which are soft

You can conduct a similar experiment by placing your hands on your neck on the right and left sides, and pronounce the sounds and. The sound is pronounced much louder, more sonorous. Scientists called such sounds sonorous, and sounds that consist only of noise - deaf. Let's populate phonetic houses in the city of sounds. Let's agree: deaf sounds will live on the first floor, and sonorous sounds will live on the second.

Let's settle unpaired consonant sounds in our houses. Recall that the sound is always only soft. The sounds of the second house are also called sonorous, because they are formed with the help of a voice and almost without noise, they are very sonorous. Comparison with vowels. Each consonant has features that distinguish it from other consonants. In speech, sounds can be replaced under the influence of neighboring sounds in the word. It is important to know the strengths and weak positions consonant sounds in a word for their correct spelling.

It is necessary to teach the child to hear them and identify them by different signs. If this memo is in front of the child's eyes, it will be easier for him to remember these letters. You can print and hang over the table where the child is engaged.

It depends on the position of the letter in the word. At the end of the syllable, the voiced sound is muffled, the same happens if the letter is in front of a deaf consonant, for example, “dove”. It must be remembered that after solid consonants there are always vowels: a; about; y; e; s. If after the consonant are: and; e; Yu; I; e, then these consonants are soft.

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-voicedness

We must immediately make a reservation that there are only four such sounds that are unpaired in all respects. We will talk about them at the end of the article. The majority, on one basis, is included in the pair, but on the other - not. Therefore, it makes no sense to write about the consonant "unpaired" - it is necessary to indicate on what basis.

Consonants differ in voicelessness-voicedness. This means that when pronouncing some of them, more voice is used (sonorous, voiced), while others use more noise (deaf) or even one noise at all (hissing).

Sonorants are very voiced consonants, they have a lot of voices, but little noise.

Two sonorous consonants - [L] and [P] - can even form a syllable under some circumstances, that is, behave like vowels. Surely you have met the erroneous spelling "teator". It is explained precisely by the fact that [P] in this word is syllable-forming. Other examples are the words "Alexander", "meaning".

Unpaired voiced consonants are just sonorants. 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 voiced unpaired, there are also sounds that are unpaired deaf. Most of them are hissing; only the deaf unpaired consonant sound [Ts] does not belong to hissing ones.

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

Pairs of hardness-softness

In addition to deafness-voicedness, Russian consonants form pairs according to hardness-softness.

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

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

By hardness-softness, consonants also make up pairs. But in this case, not all. In Russian, there are unpaired soft and unpaired hard consonants.

Unpaired solid consonants are mainly hissing ([Ж], [Ш]) and [Ц]. They always form in the distant palate.

But in the ancestor of our language, Old Slavonic, on the contrary, [Ж] and [Ш] were always soft and did not have a hard pair. Then [K], [G] and [X] were not soft. Currently, you can meet the (once the only possible) pronunciation with a soft [F '] [DROZH'ZH'I] or [DOZH '] (rain), but this is now optional.

Unpaired soft ones are [Y '] and again hissing [H '] and [Sch '].

That is, all sibilants are either always hard or always soft. The letter b after them does not indicate softness, it performs a grammatical function (for example, without even knowing what “bald” is, anyone will immediately say that this is a feminine word, because in masculine after hissing b is not put). Solid unpaired hissing consonants in a word can have b with them, but this does not mean that they should be softened. This means that we have a noun of 3 declensions, an adverb or a verb.

Unpaired soft consonants 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 of CHK, CHN, etc. b after h is not needed.

Sounds "completely unpaired"

In Russian, the majority of consonants are either paired on both grounds, or paired on one ground and unpaired on another. for example, in the word [P'EN '] (stump) the sound [P '] is paired both in deafness-voicedness (P '- B '), and in hardness-softness (P '- P), and the sound [N '] is paired in hardness-softness (H' - H), but unpaired in deafness-voicedness.

However, there are several sounds that are unpaired in both ways. These are the sounds [Y '] (unpaired voiced, unpaired soft), [H '] (unpaired soft, unpaired deaf), [Щ '] (unpaired soft, unpaired deaf) and [C] (unpaired hard, unpaired deaf). Such sounds are often made in Russian language olympiads. For example,"Guess the sound according to the characteristic: unpaired solid, unpaired deaf." We already see that it is [C].

What have we learned?

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

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Usually, children do not have serious difficulties in understanding the difference between vowels and consonants. But on hard and soft consonants, you should dwell in more detail.

How to teach children to distinguish between hard and soft consonants

The very first thing to teach a child is that consonants can be hard and soft, but not letters.

Typical mistake:
Children confuse sound and letter. Remember that a sound is a sound, and a letter is an icon, it is written. A letter cannot be hard or soft, only a consonant sound can be hard or soft in pronunciation.

Sometimes children can easily learn to distinguish between soft and hard sounds by ear.
But it happens that this is difficult, and in this case, signs will come to the rescue by which one can distinguish hard sounds from soft ones.

Distinctive features of soft and hard sounds

What sound comes after the consonant:

• If after the consonant there is a vowel a, o, y, e, s, then the consonant is solid.
• If after the consonant there is a vowel and, e, u, i, then the consonant is soft.

Working with examples:
In the words "mother", "nora" - solid consonants, because after them come "a" and "o".
In the words "fly", "nanny" - consonants are soft, because after them come "e", "and", "I".

• If another consonant sounds after a consonant, then the first consonant will be hard.
• There are sounds that can only be hard and sounds that can only be soft, no matter what sound is heard and what letter is written after them.

Always solid sounds - w, w, c.
Always soft - th, h, u.
A common way to learn these sounds is a simple technique: we write the letters that convey these sounds in a line, and underline "th, h, u". The underline symbolizes the pillow on which soft sounds sit. The pad is soft, so the sounds are soft.

Soft sign and hard sign

• If the consonant is at the end of the word, and after it is the letter “b”, then the consonant is soft.

This rule is easy to apply if the child sees the written word, but it will not help if the child performs the task by ear.

Movement of the tongue when pronouncing soft and hard sounds

When pronouncing a soft sound, the tongue moves slightly forward, approaching the palate (or touching it) with its middle.
When pronouncing solid sounds, the tongue does not move forward.

Table of signs of hard and soft sounds

Solid:

1. Before a, o, u, uh, s.
2. At the end of a word before a consonant.
3. Zh, c, sh.

Soft:

1. Before the vowels e, e, i, u, i.
2. If after the consonant there is a soft sign (dust, measles).
3. Y, h, sh.

A picture or just a list of thematic words is shown, and the task is given to choose words with soft or hard consonants. For example:

Voiced and voiceless consonants

There are 11 pairs of voiced/voiced consonants in Russian.
The phonetic difference between voiced and voiceless consonants lies in the tension vocal cords. Deaf sounds are pronounced with the help of noise, without tension of the ligaments. Voiced sounds are pronounced with a voice, are caused by the vibration of the vocal cords, because. noisy air comes out of the larynx.

Mnemonic technique for memorizing deaf sounds:
Memorize the phrase: “Stepka, do you want a cabbage? - Fi! All consonants here are deaf.

Examples of tasks for children

Tasks for training the difference of paired consonants can be compiled for each pair according to the following principle (using the example of the D/T pair):

Tasks for the difference between a pair of consonants Г/К

Today, almost all children know the letters and the alphabet already in early childhood. However, it is recommended to learn letters without naming the letters as they sound in the alphabet. Letters must be learned with sounds. Speaking of the letter "B", it is necessary to call it [b], and not "be". This is necessary in order to make it easier for the child to combine letters into syllables and words.

However, the world of sounds is not limited to this. And when the baby grows up, he will have to master such concepts as vowels, hard, soft, paired, deaf and voiced consonants. I invite you to talk today about such different sounds. We will talk about this in a fairy-tale form, in the form closest to children's perception. I invite you to phonetic tale . This is an expanded version of the fairy tale about sounds, presented in.

So, friendly letters live in a hospitable. And the sounds created a great Kingdom called Phonetics.

Kingdom of Sounds - Phonetics

In the kingdom of the sounds of the Russian language Phonetics lived together - fared vowels and consonants sounds. Each sound had its own home. The houses of vowels were painted red, while those of consonants were painted blue. But the roofs of all the houses were white and changed by themselves when the sounds went to visit each other.

Total in the kingdom 42 inhabitants: 6 vowels [a], [e], [o], [y], [i], [s] and 36 consonants. They lived together and often visited each other. And every time they visited each other, magic happened: as soon as they held hands, new sounds for new words were obtained.

Vowel sounds loved to sing. Therefore, music always sounded in their houses. But the consonant sounds did not work at all. But they were very malleable and always and in everything "agreed" with vowels. However, they could become hard or soft . For example, the sound [p]. In the word "saw" sounds soft, but in a word "dust"- firmly. And all because the sound [and] softened [p], and the sound [s], on the contrary, gave it hardness.

This is how consonants, holding hands with vowels, become soft or hard at their request.

However, there were also “naughty” sounds in the kingdom. And although they lived in blue houses and were called consonants, they did not want to change in any way. And this happened on the day when, sitting idly on the benches, they argued who is more important: vowels or consonants. And the sounds [f],[w] and [c] decided to become independent and not obey anyone, especially vowels. They proclaimed themselves to be hard sounds that would never, under any circumstances, become soft! And to prove my firm decision they painted the white roofs of their houses dark blue.

But compliant and non-conflict sounds [sch],[th] and [h] they were very upset and afraid that the balance of the ratio of sounds would be disturbed in the kingdom and decided to remain soft forever. And so that all the inhabitants of Phonetics knew about this, they painted the roofs of their houses green.

However, soon 2 more inhabitants appeared in the kingdom of Phonetics - soft and hard signs. But they did not violate the unity of the sound world. soft sign helped consonants become soft, and hard - hard. They built themselves white houses and all lived peacefully and amicably.

But the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Phonetics were famous not only for their hard and soft characters. Many of them had and still have their own special preferences. Some sounds loved the sound of falling leaves, while others loved the sound of rain. They even built separate quarters for themselves so that in one - the bell always rings loudly, and in the other - as if under a dome - deaf and noisy ... So voiced and voiceless consonants . A river flows between the quarters.

So the sounds [r], [l], [m], [n], [d], [b], [g], [c], [d], [g], [s] settled in the quarter with the bell . And in a quiet quarter - [p], [f], [t], [w], [s], [k], [x], [c], [h], [u]. And some letters became so friendly that they connected their houses with bridges. So there is a bridge between b-b sounds, f-v, t-d, w-w, s-z and k-g. This is paired consonants .

This is how the amazing Kingdom of Phonetics lives. Sounds go to visit each other, change, adjust, make noise, shout, sing ... They have fun. And in this fun words are born, from them sentences that make up our speech. By the way, it happens ... But by the way, we'll talk about this another time.

How to learn soft and hard consonants

These are the complex relationships between sounds. To make it easier for my son to draw phonetic word patterns, we made very convenient clouds with him. It is very easy to determine the hardness or softness of consonant sounds from them.

Read about how we learned hard and soft consonants with the help of clouds.

How to distinguish between voiced and voiceless consonants

And a very simple technique helped us to make it easier for the child to distinguish between voiced and deaf consonants. Naming the sound, press your palm to your neck. If the sound is sonorous, then vibration (trembling) of the vocal cords is felt. If the sound is muffled, there will be no vibration.

For the same purposes, we used the picture with houses and bridges across the river, which you saw above.

Enjoy your acquaintance with the world of Phonetics!

All the best!