Russian tongue twisters

Do you want Russians to understand you when you speak? Do you want to have clear Russian?

If your answer is “Yes” than the tongue twisters will help you!

It is interesting and very useful way to improve your pronunciation.
In Russian tongue twister sounds like "СКОРОГОВОРКА" and it means "to speak fast".

Here I prepared some of Russian tongue twisters, which you can use:

Hello, my dear readers!

Today I suggest you to read and listen 10 facts about Russian in Russian which were prepared by BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/russian/soap/facts_russian.shtml

And this is a link for beginners - in English:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/russian/soap/facts.shtml

The case is in the details, or important to know!

If you learn Russion it is important for you to remember meaning of some words which can be mentioned in the conversational speech very often:

конЕчно -         the analogue of "sure" or "of course" in English.
                           (Ты придешь сегодня? - Конечно! - Will you come today? - Sure!)

лАдно -             it can be used as "OK" - so you understand how common it is.
                          (- Приготовь что-то вкусное пожалуйста. - Ладно.
                           - Cook smth tasty please. - OK.)

ну -                    it can be a particle or interjection.
                          Very often you can translate "НУ" as "WELL":
                          (Что ты будешь делать сегодня? - Ну, я собирался погулять. -
                          What are you going to do today? - Well, I was going to have a walk.)
                          or it can be translated as "comе on":
                         (Почему ты молчишь? Ну! Отвечай! -
                         Why do you keep silence? Comе on! Answer!)

да нет, наверное - it is one of the most unique collocations in Russian, if to translate
                          literally it means "yes no, maybe" but in fact it always means just "no"
                          but when person give you the answer "да нет, наверное" it means that
                          he\she is not sure or it is a kind of polite refusal.
                          (Ты будешь пить чай? - Да нет, наверное.
                          Would you like to drink tea? - No, I think no.)

тут - там -        very usefull words which help you to orient,
                           their meaning are "here" and "there":
                          тут - here
                          там - there
                          (- Тут так холодно! - 
                          - Это ты на севере не был, вот там действительно холодно!
                          - It is so cold here! - 
                          -You have never been to the North, there is really cold!)

"да нет, наверное" = "нет"

The role of stress in Russian words

It is very important to make the right stress in Russian words not only because in this way the words will sound right and good, but also because the meaning of word can depend on stress.
I will give an example of some words which have the same writing but different meaning because of the stress:

зАмок - замОк
                             зАмок - it is a castle
                             замОк - it is a lock

хлОпок - хлопОк
                             хлОпок - it is a cotton
                             хлопОк - it is a swat

мУка - мукА
                            мУка - it is anguish, throe
                            мукА - it is a flour

Атлас - атлАс
                            Атлас - it is atlas
                            атлАс - it is a satin

бЕлки - белкИ
                            бЕлки - it is plural of squirell
                            белкИ - it is proteins

плАчу - плачУ
                            плАчу - it means the verb "to cry" in first person singular
                                          (like "I'm crying" - "Я плАчу")
                            плачУ -  it means the verb "to pay" in first person singular
                                          (like "I pay money" - "Я плачУ деньги")

There are not too many the same words with different stress in Russian, but you should remember the main of them, it helps you to understand the oral speech right in some cases.

зАмок - замОк