Russian Voiced and Unvoiced Consonants

Voiced and Unvoiced Consonants

Because of the Russian language is, the way we pronounce some consonats changes, the same way as we saw with Vowel Reduction

Relation Between Voiced and Unvoiced Consonants

Each voiced consonant is related to an unvoiced one. As such, how they sound when pronounced is almost similar.

Voiced	Unvoiced
Б	П
В	Ф
Г	К
Д	Т
Ж	Ш
З	С

How They Change

Voiced consonats can become unvoiced:

1. At the end of a word:
   ПЕТЕРБУРГ - pihtirburk
   ГАМБУРГ - gamburk
   ГОРБАЧЁВ - garbachef
   МЕДВЕДЕВ

2. In the middle of a word when followed by an unvoiced consonant:
   ВОДКА - votka
   ВТОРНИК - ftornik

Inversely, unvoiced consonants become voiced:

1. When followed by a voiced consonant:
   ВОКЗАЛ - vagzal