Talking about Phonetical Stress in Russian

As a student, you may find phonetic stress in the Russian language one of the most puzzling topics. Let’s explore some vocabulary that will help you talk about stress and stress placement in Russian.

“Ударение” refers to stress or accent in a word. It’s curious that the word “ударение” comes from the verb “ударить” (to hit). Pretty metaphoric, isn’t it?

Each word consists of “слоги,” which are syllables. When discussing stress, we often mention whether it falls on the first syllable or elsewhere. For instance, “ударение падает на первый слог” means “the stress falls on the first syllable.”

In words with more than one syllable, one vowel receives the primary stress, while others remain unstressed. The vowel bearing the stress is called “ударная гласная,” while the unstressed ones are “безударные гласные.” For example, in the word “мáма,” the stress falls on the first syllable, making the first “а” the stressed vowel, while the second “а” remains unstressed. In Russian, we would say:

• В слове “мама” ударение падает на первый слог. Первая гласная “а” – ударная, а вторая – безударная.