There are two exceptions from the soft/hard coupling:
1. The consonants ж, ш, ц are always hard.
2. The consonants й, ч, щ are always soft.
The difference between hard-consonant pronunciation and its soft counterpart is in the position
of the tongue. When pronouncing any soft consonant, the middle of the tongue raises toward the palate. The
whole tongue moves forward, giving the sensation of pronouncing the vowel и (however without
voicing the и!).
The distinction of hard and soft consonants is important not only for natural Russian pronunciation
(and thus reduction of the foreign accent), but also for spelling. When learning endings of words,
you will see that they often come in pairs – one for the stems that end in a hard consonant and the
other for the stems that end in a soft consonant:
стол table – гость guest
столы́ tables – го́сти guests
от стола́ from the table – от го́стя from the guest
к столу́ to the table – к го́стю to the guest
Thus, understanding the distinction between hard and soft consonants is important for your future studies as it will make the choice of
endings easier.
