The letter ы

It looks like two letters but has an indescribable sound. The 29th letter of the Russian alphabet is quite unique and often causes problems with pronunciation. We are talking about the letter ы, a sound not found in many other languages (except perhaps Turkish). As such, it takes some effort to pronounce it correctly.

Sounds Like

An indescribable sound, indeed. But people have tried. Wikipedia loosely describes it as “like the u in bunker” (which is far off). Wikibooks says it’s somewhere between “u” and “j”, while Russisch in Rusland compares it to something between “u” and “i”. That’s not entirely wrong, but the suggestion to “try saying mus and mis at the same time” can be more confusing than helpful.

Many have taken a shot at explaining it. One amusing and surprisingly accurate attempt was found on Reddit: “Someone once described it to me as that sound you make when someone punches you in the gut”, with a decent approximation: “Like an ‘uiee.’” As Dobby Dobson advises: “Just punch yourself in the stomach” (1:23), though Ы is it difficult? No! (2017, 2 m) also offers less painful options.

Listen for yourself to find your own description. Here’s мыло, дым, and пыль (soap, smoke, and dust) in 18 seconds. Also, check out Russian Sound Ы (2015, 1 m, with a poem) and The letter Ы in words (2013, 3 m).

Pronunciation

Now, how to actually make that sound—without getting punched in the stomach. It may sound complex, like on How to pronounce Russian letters “Ь”, “Ы”, “Ц”, “Щ” in a proper way (Ruspeach):

“Look at yourself in the mirror, smile and say the English letter E. Then, with a spoon or any other tool, touch your tongue and push it back, so your tongue forms a small hill inside your mouth. Now, pronouncing E with your twisted tongue should produce the Russian Ы sound.”

Make a smile
A simpler and more enjoyable suggestion comes from Katya (or Катюша) of RussianPod101, in Weekly Russian Words with Katya – Mammals. “Make a big smile and try to giggle.” You’ll encounter this from 1:36 when she introduces мышь (mouse).

Toothbrush
Daria Molchanova from Real Russian Club also advocates a good smile, with the tip: “Try to smile as wide as you can” ( 0:27). You’ll find out what to do with a toothbrush—it can even be done with a pen! See Russian pronunciation. The sound Ы (Live Russian, 2017, 3 m).

Russian pronunciation – Letter Ы – 2 ways to pronounce it
(Real Russian Club, 2016, 4 m)

Anatomy
There’s some anatomy involved in pronouncing ы. It’s all about tongue placement (since the Russian word for tongue and language are the same!). The clips below (which are more useful) illustrate this well.

How to Pronounce Russian Ы
(Russian from Russia, 2020, 8 m)

How to Properly Say Ы in Russian
(Be Fluent in Russian, 2020, 4 m)

From the same channel, check out Difference between И and Ы and Hard and Soft Consonants (2019, 14 m) and Letters И and Ы (2016, 2 m).

More

• How to pronounce Russian Ы / Russian Pronunciation 2 (Russian Progress, 2018, 5 m)
• How to pronounce Ы (Russian From Home, 2018, 7 m)
• Russian 101: how to pronounce Russian ы (Crazy Russian Dad, 2016, 3 m)
• ы pronunciation (Natalya, 2016, 4 m)
• Learn Russian pronunciation | Звук “Ы” (Easy Russian, 2015, 2 m)
• Learn to Pronounce Russian Ы - Lessons for Beginners (Weekly Russian, 2014, 8 m)

Also, see How to Pronounce the Russian Vowel Ы (5 Approaches) (Live Fluent, 2018) and Russian Ы sound: 3 ways to learn to pronounce it (Burupo.com).

If it remains difficult, perhaps this might help: sing it!.

Ы and И

The sound of ы is sometimes close to и. You’ll often encounter и where you might have expected ы, due to the 7-letter spelling rule. After ц, you’ll typically get и, not ы.

• Sounds Ы И / Practice (Live Russian, 2020, 53 m)
• Difference between pronunciation of Russian letters И and Ы (Lang Mind, 2020, 3 m)
• Russian Ы and И (How to Pronounce Russian Ы) (Sergey Nim, 2019, 9 m)
• Russian Minimal Pairs – Letters Ы and И (Russian Pronunciation Practice) (Boost Your Russian, 2019, 7 m)
• When и sounds like ы (Russian grammar, 2018, 7 m)
• Phonetic Exercises: Ы vs. И (Amazing Russian, 2016, 4 m)
• Russian vowels: the difference between Ы and И (LearnRussian.org, 2016, 6 m)

Operation «Ы»

This is a famous 1965 Russian film ( IMDb, Wikipedia) where Ы is the code name for a clandestine operation. Why Ы? Чтобы никто не догадался (so that no one would guess). You can watch the entire movie on Mosfilm’s YouTube channel.

How to pronounce Russian sound Ы
(Russian Movies, 2018, 2 m)

Study and Music

Learn more through Операция «Ы» и другие приключения Шурика in Learn Russian with Movies / Slow Russian with Russian and English Subtitles (Boost Your Russian, 2020, 27 m) and Learn Russian with Russian film | ENJOY Russian comedy “Operation Ы” (Mary Z, formerly Easy Russian, 2014, 6 m).

A famous song from the film is Постой паровоз! performed by Юрий Никулин ( Yuri Nikulin), and you can also use it for learning. Check out Постой, паровоз // Russian song from famous Soviet movie (Natasha speaks Russian, 2017, 2 m). Another legendary version is performed by Аркадий Северный—but now we’re really getting off track!