Consonant sounds, but they are voiced first. §6. Hard and soft consonants. §9. Positional changes of sounds

In the elementary grades, the basis of a person’s spelling literacy is formed.

Everyone knows that the difficulty of the Russian language is largely due to the discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation. This is often associated with paired consonants.

What is a paired consonant?

All consonants are in one or another opposition to each other according to their characteristic features. One of them is the contrast between sounds based on deafness and voicedness.

Some consonants, while all other features coincide, such as the place of formation and the method of pronunciation, differ only in the participation of the voice in the sound process. They are called pairs. The remaining consonants do not have a voiceless-voiced pair: l, m, x, ts, ch, shch, y.

Paired consonants

examples of words with paired consonants

tables[b]s - table[p]

draw[v]a - draw[f]

doro[g]a - doro[k]

boro[d]a - boro[t]ka

blah[zh]it - blah[sh]

frosty[z]ny - frosty[s]

Paired consonants are given here. The table also contains examples that illustrate the spelling “Verified consonants in the root of a word.”

Spelling rule for paired consonants

During pronunciation, paired sounds can be interchangeable. But this process is not reflected in writing. That is, the letters do not change, no matter what sounds we hear in their place. This is how the principle of uniformity of morphemes is implemented in the Russian language. The spelling of paired consonants is completely subject to this law.

The rule can be stated in the following paragraphs:

  • the root of the word is always written the same way, since semantics depends on this;
  • spelling needs to be checked by selecting or changing word forms;
  • You must select as a test one the one that has either a vowel sound or a sonorant sound after the dubious consonant (р,л,м,н,й).

This can be seen in the examples from the table: consonant spellings appear either at the end of words or before other paired sounds. In test words they are located before vowels or before phonemes that are unpaired in voicing.

Application of the rule

The spelling of paired consonants needs to be practiced. You need to start by developing the ability to see the spelling pattern being studied. This will be the end of a word or a combination of consonants, in which sounds begin to influence the sound of each other - the subsequent one changes the quality of the pronunciation of the previous one.

When we know what a paired consonant is, it is not difficult to draw a conclusion about which option to choose:

  • bo[p] - beans - bean;
  • bro [t] - broda - ford;
  • bro[f"] - eyebrows - eyebrow;
  • nail[t"] - nails - nail;
  • vegetable garden [t] - vegetable gardens - vegetable garden;
  • dro [sh] - trembling - trembling;
  • stripe [s]ka - stripe - stripe;
  • ko[z"]ba - mow - mowing;
  • re[z"]ba - cut - carving;
  • goro[d"]ba - fence - gorodba;
  • kro[v"] - blood - blood;
  • str[sh] - guard - guard.

Paired consonants. Examples of differentiating words

Deafness and voicedness are able to distinguish words by meaning. For example:

  • (soup) thick - (above the river) bush;
  • (telegraph) pole - (Alexandria) pillar;
  • bark (oak) - (high) mountain;
  • (unbearable) heat - (surface) of the ball;
  • (bouquet) of roses - (boy) grew up;
  • (new) house - (thick) volume.

IN weak positions, at the end of words, for example, as in the example of “roses” and “ros”, a check is required to avoid semantic confusion. Paired consonants in Russian require careful attention.

Test on the topic studied

grass[..]ka, fish[..]ka, zu[..]ki, arbu[..], lo[..]ka, kor[..]ka, ko[..]ti.

Fabulous - fairy tale, head - head, pie - pies, ditch - groove, birch - birch, eyes - eyes, stripe - stripes, notebook - notebook, spikelet - spikelets, jump - jumping

6. F or W?

Boots...ki, doro...ki, bum...ki, cro...ki, ro...ki, vice..ki, bara...ki, lo...ki, game...ki, cha...ki, lie down...ki.

  • g...ki (__________);
  • fl...ki (__________);
  • gr... (__________);
  • gla... (__________);
  • jump...ki (____________);
  • lo...ka (____________);
  • horse (______________);
  • zu.. (_______).

Sha(p/b)ka, provo(d/t), kru(g/k), povya(s/z)ka, myo(d/t), su(d/t), sla(d/t) cue, oshi(b/p)ka, doba(v/f)ka, uka(z/s)ka.

9. Insert letters in the text:

Swan is the king of all waterfowl. He is, like a dream..., white, graceful, he has shiny eyes, black varnishes and a long, flexible neck. How beautifully he floats on the smooth water of the pond!

10. Correct errors:

  • I love reading stories.
  • How fragrant the strawberries are!
  • Carrots are sown on the beds.
  • A flexible birch tree flutters its petals in the wind.
  • The tray floated on the lake.
  • Berek is gradually approaching.
  • Storosh is not sleeping.
  • A mongrel rattles loudly in the yard.
  • Yosh rustles in the bushes.

Answers

1. What is a paired consonant? A consonant that has a pair of deafness or voicedness.

2. Complete the sentence:

To check paired consonants, you need choose a test word.

3. Highlight the words that need checking:

immer..ka, underwater... smooth, smart... horse, careful..prepare, du..ki, l o...ki, other..ny.

4. Write the sounds in square brackets:

grass[V]ka, lo[D]ka, zu[B]ki, arbu[Z], lo[D]ka, koro[B]ka, ko[G]ti.

5. Underline the test word:

Fabulous - fairy tale, head - head, pie - pies, ditch - ditch, birch - birch, eyes - eyes, stripe - stripes, notebook - notebook, spikelet - spikelets, bounce- jumping

6. F or W?

Boots, paths, pieces of paper, crumbs, horns, powders, lambs, spoons, toys, cups, frogs.

7. Write down the test words and insert letters instead of dots:

  • beeps(beep);
  • checkboxes(checkbox);
  • griB (mushrooms);
  • glaZ (eyes);
  • jumping (jump);
  • boat (boat);
  • horse(horses);
  • Teeth (teeth).

8. Choose the correct option:

Hat, wire, circle, bandage, honey, court, sweet, mistake, additive, pointer.

9. Insert letters in the text:

The swan is the king of all waterfowl. He is like snow, white, graceful, he has sparkling eyes, black paws and a long flexible neck. How beautifully he floats on the smooth water of the pond!

10. Correct errors:

  • I love reading fairy tales.
  • How fragrant the strawberries are!
  • Carrots are sown in the beds.
  • A flexible birch tree flutters its petals in the wind.
  • The boat was sailing on the lake.
  • The coastline is gradually approaching.
  • The watchman is not sleeping.
  • A mongrel barks loudly in the yard.
  • The hedgehog rustles in the bushes.

Consonant sounds sound different in different words. Somewhere it’s hard, and somewhere it’s soft. In this lesson we will learn to distinguish between soft and hard consonant sounds and to indicate the softness of consonant sounds in writing with the letters I, E, E, Yu, I and b. Let's find out which consonants form hard-soft pairs, and which are only hard or only soft.

Compare the first consonants. When pronouncing the sound in the word KIT, the middle part of the tongue rises to the palate, the passage through which air flows narrows, and a sound is obtained, which scientists conventionally call soft. And the opposite sound was called - solid.

Let's complete the task. You need to put the vegetables in two baskets. In the first place we put those whose names contain some soft sounds, in the second those in whose names all consonant sounds are hard. Beets, turnips, eggplant, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, onions, pumpkin, cucumber.

Let's check. In the first basket they put: beets(sound [v’]), turnip(sound [r’]), tomato(sound [m’]),cucumber(sound [r’]). Second: cabbage, pumpkin, eggplant, onion .

It is important to listen to the sounds of spoken words. If you say the word NOS otherwise - with a hard first sound, we get a completely different word - NOSE.

Let's listen and watch the movement of our tongue:

row - sound [p’] - rad - sound [p]

hatch - sound [l’] - bow - sound [l]


Rice. 3. Bow ( )

crumpled - sound [m’] - small - sound [m]

Sounds can be written (conventionally) using icons. Musical sounds are written in notes, and speech sounds are written in letters, but in special square brackets - in transcription. In order not to confuse hard and soft sounds when reading the transcription, scientists agreed to show the softness of the sound with an icon very similar to a comma, only they put it on top.

Most consonant sounds form pairs based on softness and hardness:

Some consonants are only hard or only soft. They do not form pairs in terms of hardness/softness:

Only hard consonants: [zh], [w], [ts]. Only soft consonants: [th’], [h’], [w’].

Let's complete the task: indicate the paired sound.

[z] - ? [and] - ? [r’] - ? [h’] - ? [With'] - ? [l] - ? Let’s check the correctness of the task: [z] - [z’]; [r’] - [r]; [s’] - [s]; [l] - [l’]. [zh], [h’] - unpaired sounds in terms of softness and hardness.

In writing, the hardness of consonant sounds is indicated by the vowels A, O, U, Y, E, and the softness of consonant sounds is indicated by the vowels E, Yo, I, Yu, Ya.

There are words with soft consonant sounds at the end of words or in the middle of words before other consonant sounds. Listen to the words: salt, horse, notebook, coat, ring, letter. Then a soft sign will come to the rescue. Even his name suggests - a sign soft, for soft consonants.

Let's make a reminder of how to act when writing words:

I hear a hard consonant sound - after it I write the letters in place of the vowel sound: A, O, U, Y, E.

I hear a soft consonant sound before a vowel sound - I indicate its softness with vowels: E, Yo, I, Yu, Ya.

I hear a soft sound at the end of a word or before a consonant sound - I show softness b.

Rice. 5. Hard and soft consonants ()

So, today we learned that consonant sounds can be soft and hard, and the softness of consonant sounds in writing in Russian is indicated by the letters i, e, e, yu, i and ь.

  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.

Additional web resources

  1. Hypermarket of knowledge ()
  2. Russian language: short theoretical course. ()
  3. Logosauria: site for children's computer games. ()

Make it at home

  1. Andrianova T.M., Ilyukhina V.A. Russian language 1. M.: Astrel, 2011. Pp. 35, ex. 6, Page 36, ex. 3.
  2. Count how many soft consonants are in a word train? (The word electric train has 3 soft consonant sounds ([l’], [r’], [h’]).
  3. Using the knowledge gained in the lesson, make up puzzles or charades with words where the softness and hardness of a sound changes the meaning.

Ability to distinguish between soft and hard consonants. Obviously, you don’t need to memorize them, but learn to hear them. And for this, the child needs to be told exactly how these sounds are made - this will greatly facilitate his understanding.

Always soft and always hard consonants

Not all consonants in our language are both hard and soft. First, you need your child to remember those of them that are only hard: Zh, Sh, Ts, and also always soft: Ch, Shch, Y. To do this, you can, for example, make a memorial plaque, where the hard ones will always be drawn above blue bricks, and always soft ones - over green pillows (the choice of color is based on how these sounds are designated in the lower grades).

If a child constantly sees this picture, which you put in his workbook or hang above him, then he will quickly remember these consonants.

How vowels “command” consonants

Then you explain to your child that other consonants can be either soft or hard. But the neighboring letters will help suggest this. If after our consonant there is another consonant, then ours is hard. For example: table. What comes after the C sound? So this is a hard consonant.

Vowel sounds “command” the consonant standing in front what it should be. If these are vowels: A, O, U, E, Y, then there are only hard consonants in front of them. And if it is: I, E, Yu, I, E, then it is soft. The softness of the previous consonant is also indicated by

Educational games

To make it easier for your child to remember this, try playing with him. Invite him to place the outer side of his index finger to the palate and pronounce the syllables containing soft and hard consonants in turn. For example: TA - TYA, NA - NYA. Thanks to this, the child will be able to remember exactly how a consonant sound is produced. He will understand that when a soft consonant is formed, the tongue seems to move forward, and its back rises slightly towards the palate. But when hard consonants are pronounced, this does not happen.

Throw the ball to the child, naming a syllable with a hard consonant, and let him return the ball to you, having already pronounced it with a soft consonant. For example: LA - LA, LO - LE, LY - LI, etc.

At school, students are asked to distinguish hard and soft consonants using blue and green colors. Blue ones are hard and green ones are soft. Cut out a few squares of red, blue and green and have them make a word mosaic. The child will display vowel sounds in red, hard consonants in blue, and soft consonants in green. For this, take small words of one or two syllables: fish, elephant, branch, chalk etc.

Play the “chain of words” game. You pronounce a word ending with a syllable with a hard or soft consonant, and the child names the next word that begins with this syllable. Remembering to determine out loud which consonant, hard or soft, was in this syllable: winds - fish - bagels - cinema etc.

If you methodically explain to your child the difference between hard and soft consonants, this will help him navigate more easily in the future, when studying many of the features of the spelling of the Russian language. Good luck to you!

In the Russian language, voiceless and voiced consonants are distinguished. The rules for writing letters denoting them begin to be studied already in the first grade. But even after graduating from school, many still cannot write words containing voiceless and voiced consonants without errors. And it's sad.

Why do you need to write voiceless and voiced consonants correctly in Russian?

Some people treat writing culture superficially. They justify their ignorance in this area with such a common phrase: “What difference does it make how it’s written, it’s still clear what it’s about!”

In fact, errors in spelling words indicate a low level of personal culture. You cannot consider yourself a developed person if you cannot write correctly in your native language.

There is one more fact that testifies in favor of the rule of error-free writing. After all, voiceless and voiced consonants are sometimes found in words that are homophones in oral speech. That is, they sound the same, but are written differently. Incorrect use of a letter in them is fraught with loss or change in the meaning of the context.

For example, the words “pond” - “rod”, “cat” - “code”, “horn” - “rock” are included in this list.

Shameful loss

During your Russian language lesson, you can tell schoolchildren a funny episode from your life. It should be based on the fact that several children did not know how to correctly write in words the letters denoting voiced and voiceless consonant sounds.

And this happened during the school team game “Treasure Hunters”. In its rules it was noted that it was necessary to move along the route indicated in the notes. Moreover, the place where the next letter was hidden was not indicated precisely. The note contained only a hint of him.

The teams received the first letters with the following text: “Road, meadow, stone.” One group of guys immediately ran towards the lawn and found a stone there, under which the letter was hidden. The second one, having mixed up the homophone words “meadow” and “onion”, ran to the garden bed. But, naturally, they did not find any stone among the bright green rows.

You can change history in such a way that the notes were written by an illiterate scribbler. It was he who, when giving instructions to his team members, used “bow” instead of the word “meadow”. Not knowing how to write paired voiced and voiceless consonants, the “literate” misled the children. As a result, the competition was canceled.

The rule for writing dubious paired consonants according to deafness and voicedness

In fact, checking which letter should be written in a particular case is quite simple. Paired voiced and voiceless consonants raise doubts about the spelling only when they are at the end of a word or are followed by another consonant voiceless sound. If one of these cases occurs, you need to choose a cognate or change the form of the word so that the dubious consonant is followed by a vowel sound. You can also use the option where the letter being tested is followed by a voiced consonant.

Mug - mug, snow - snow, bread - bread; carving - carved, sweat - sweaty.

Didactic game “Connect the word being tested with the test word”

To get more done during class, you can play a game that reinforces skills without recording. Its condition will be a task in which children are asked only to connect test words with the trait being tested. It takes less time, and the work done will be extremely effective.

The game will become more interesting if it is played in the form of a competition. To do this, three variants of tasks are made, where two columns are used. One contains test words. In the other, you need to include those in which voiced and voiceless consonants are in a dubious position. Examples of words could be like this.

First column: bread, ponds, snow, onion, meadows, twig. Second column: onion, bread, meadow, twig, snow, pond.

To complicate the task, you can include in the column with test words those that are not suitable for verification, that is, they are not the same root as those whose spelling there are doubts: snacks, servant, octopus.

Table of consonants according to voicedness and voicelessness

All consonant sounds are divided according to several parameters. During the phonetic analysis of a word in school, characteristics such as softness-hardness, sonority or deafness are indicated. For example, the sound [n] is a consonant, hard, sonorous. And the sound [p] differs from it in only one characteristic: it is not voiced, but dull. The difference between the sounds [р] and [р’] lies only in softness and hardness.

Based on these characteristics, a table is compiled, thanks to which you can determine whether the sound has a softness-hardness pair. After all, some consonants are only soft or only hard.

They also separate voiced and voiceless consonants. The table presented here shows that some sounds do not have a pair on this basis. For example, these are

  • y, l, m, n, r;
  • x, c, h, sch.

Moreover, the sounds of the first row are voiced, and the sounds of the second are unvoiced. The remaining consonants are paired. It is they that make writing difficult, since a dull sound is often heard where the letter denoting a voiced consonant is written.

Only paired consonants - voiced and voiceless - require verification. The table reflects this point. For example, the sound “b”, falling into the final position or being in front of another voiceless consonant, is itself “deafened”, turning into “p”. That is, the word “hornbeam” (wood species) is pronounced and heard as [grap].

The table shows that these sounds are paired in terms of voicedness and deafness. The same can be called “v” - “f”, “g” - “k”, “d” - “t”, “g” - “w” and “z” - “s”. Although you can add the sound “x” to the “g”-“k” pair, which often sounds in a deafened position in place of “g”: soft - soft[m'ahk'ii], easy - light[l’ohk’ii].

Didactic lotto game “Doubtful consonants”

So that classes in which the spelling of voiced and voiceless consonants is studied do not turn into a tedious routine, they should be diversified. For a didactic game, teachers and parents can prepare special small cards with pictures and words that contain dubious consonant sounds. A dubious consonant can be replaced with dots or asterisks.

Additionally, larger cards should be made, which will contain only letters indicating paired consonants in terms of voicedness and deafness. Cards with pictures are laid out on the table.

At the leader’s signal, the players take them from the table and cover with them the letters on the large card that they think are missing. Whoever closes all the windows before others and without mistakes is considered the winner.

Extracurricular activities in Russian language

Advantageous options for developing interest in this area of ​​science are evenings, competitions, and KVNs. They are held outside school hours for everyone.

It is very important to create an exciting scenario for such an event. Particular attention should be paid to designing activities that are both rewarding and fun. Such activities can be carried out with students of all ages.

Interesting tasks can also be those that contain an element of literary creativity. For example, it is useful to offer the guys:

Make up a story about how the sounds “t” and “d” quarreled;

Come up with as many words with the same root as possible for the word “horn” in one minute;

Write a short quatrain with rhymes: meadow-onion, twig-pond.

Alternation of consonants in Russian

Sometimes, contrary to the laws of spelling, some letters in words are replaced by others. For example, “spirit” and “soul”. Historically (etymologically) they are the same root, but have different letters in the root - “x” and “w”. The same process of alternation of consonants is observed in the words “burden” and “to wear.” But in the latter case, the sound “sh” alternates with the consonant “s”.

However, it should be noted that this is not an alternation of voiced and voiceless consonants making up a pair. This is a special type of replacing one sound with another, which occurred in ancient times, at the dawn of the formation of the Russian language.

The following consonant sounds alternate:

  • z - f - g (example: friends - to be friends - friend);
  • t - h (example: fly - flying);
  • ts - ch - k (example: face - personal - face);
  • s - w - x (examples: forester - goblin, arable land - to plow);
  • w - d - railway (example: leader - driver - driving);
  • z - st (example: fantasy - fantastic);
  • shch - sk (example: polished - gloss);
  • sh - st (example: paved - paved).

Alternation is often referred to as the appearance of the “l” sound in verbs, which in this case bears the beautiful name “el epentheticum.” Examples could be pairs of words “love - love”, “feed - feed”, “buy - buy”, “graph - graph”, “catch - catch”, “ruin - ruin”.

The Russian language is so rich, the processes occurring in it are so diverse, that if a teacher tries to find exciting options for working in the classroom, both in the classroom and outside of class, then many teenagers will plunge into the world of knowledge and discovery, and will become truly interested in this school subject.

Today, almost all children know 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 taught with sounds. When talking about the letter “B”, it is necessary to call it [b], and not “be”. This is necessary so that it will be easier for the child to combine letters into syllables and words.

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

So, friendly letters live in a hospitable place. And sounds created a large Kingdom called Phonetics.

Kingdom of sounds - Phonetics

In the kingdom of sounds of the Russian language Phonetics we lived together and got along vowels And consonants sounds. Each sound had its own house. For vowels, the houses were painted red, and for consonants, blue. But the roofs of all the houses were white and changed on their own when the sounds visited each other.

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

Vowel sounds loved to be sung. Therefore, there was always music playing in their houses. But with consonant sounds it was not possible to sing at all. But they were very pliable and always “agreed” with the vowels in everything. At the same time, they could become hard or soft . For example, the sound [p]. In a word "saw" sounds soft, but in words "dust"- firmly. And all because the sound [i] softened the [p], and the sound [s], on the contrary, made it harder.

This is how consonant sounds, joining 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 benches, they argued about who was more important: vowels or consonants. And sounds [and],[w] And [ts] decided to become independent and not obey anyone, especially vowel sounds. They declared themselves hard sounds, which will never become soft under any circumstances! And to prove their firm decision, they painted the white roofs of their houses dark blue.

But compliant and non-conflicting sounds [sch],[th] And [h] They were very upset and afraid that the balance of the ratio of sounds in the kingdom would be upset and decided to remain soft forever. And so that all the residents 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. The soft sign helped the consonants become soft, and the hard sign helped the consonants become hard. They built themselves white houses and everyone 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, it is dull and noisy... This is how they appeared voiced and voiceless consonants . And a river flows between the blocks.

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

This is how the amazing Kingdom of Phonetics lives. The sounds visit each other, change, adjust, make noise, shout, sing... They have fun. And in this fun words are born, from them the sentences that make up our speech. By the way, speech happens... However, 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 diagrams of words, he and I made very convenient clouds. Using them, it is very easy to determine the hardness or softness of consonant sounds.

Read about how we taught hard and soft consonants using clouds.

How to distinguish between voiced and voiceless consonants

And a very simple technique helped us make it easier for the child to distinguish between voiced and voiceless consonants. When naming the sound, press your palm to your neck. If the sound is ringing, then vibration (tremor) of the vocal cords is felt. If the sound is dull, 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!