Russian letter: ъ
The Russian letter ъ, called "the hard sign", has no sound. Instead, it changes the sound of the preceding consonant making it hard and separating it from the following vowel.
There are no words in Russian starting from the ъ, therefore we don't display it in big caps.
Below we included words and syllables with and without the ъ, so you can hear the difference.
Writing
Printed v.1
ъ
Printed v.2
ъ
Printed v.3
ъ
Cursive
ъ
Hand-written
ъ
Pronunciation
Actual sound
Transcription
[ ]
How to pronounce
does not have its own sound
Pronunciation tips
Practice the syllables and words to understand the difference between when the ъ is there and not there.
Practice with syllables
- объе
- обе
- изъя
- изя
- предъя
- предя
Words with this letter
With stress marks
объе́кт
Cursive / Hand-written
объект
объект
объект
Transcription / Translation
[ ab-yékt ]
object
object
Pronunciation tips
Unstressed О sounds like А.
Б followed by Ъ stays hard.
Practice with a worksheet
Practice the hand-written Russian letter Ъ as well as the syllables and words listed above, with this worksheet: download the worksheet.