Soft sign is one of the letters of the Russian alphabet that does not have its own sound. It is impossible to pronounce it phonetically, but despite this, it is significant and fulfills a very important role.
History of the soft sign
At the stage of the birth of the great and mighty Russian language, our usual soft sign was used as a very short version of the letter and. Over time, the soft sign lost this purpose, but, like the letter and, continued to soften the consonant in front.
In the Cernovian Slavic dialect, the concept of using the letter ь is almost the same as in traditional Russian, with the exception of some details. Firstly, in Church Slavonic, a soft sign, contrary to the rules and canons of the Russian language, is written after the hissing letters at the end of m.r. nouns. (bucket, guard). Secondly, a soft sign in Church Slavonic was written at the end of any short passive participles (see, hear).
In some cases it was acceptable not to put a soft sign between consonants where it should be. For example,instead of the word darkness, they could write tma, and so on.
Soft sign functions
We all know that consonants are soft and hard. Some consonants are always soft, and some are softened by other letters. For example, iotated vowels soften the hard consonant that precedes them. The soft sign performs exactly the same function as these vowels - it softens the consonants in front of it:
- softens the leading consonant;
- acts as a separation in words before iotized vowels and the vowel o in loanwords;
- does not carry a special phonetic load, but retains the grammatical form in some words (mouse, dry land, wilderness).
Words with a soft sign in the middle of a word
Let's look at a few special cases where a soft character can occur in the middle of a word.
A soft sign between two consonants
Example: skates, sauna, golf, polka, hospital, coal.
In this case, the soft sign simply softens the consonant in front. Rule: a soft sign in the middle of a word is not written between combinations of consonants u, u, u, u.
Soft sign between consonant and iotated vowel (separator)
Example: trees, logs, pickles, learning, monkey, bindweed, necklace.
In this case, the soft sign softens the consonant in front. The iotized vowel is decomposed into two sounds.
A soft sign can appear not only before iotated vowels.
Example: broth, champignon, canyon, medallion.
Most often this happens in foreign loanwords.
How not to make a mistake with writing a soft sign in the middle and end of a word?
A soft sign at the end of a word is needed in order to soften the consonant in front.
Examples: coal, s alt, moth, tulle, pain, prowess, calm, scrap, teacher, password.
The sounds h, w, w, according to the canons of the Russian language, cannot be soft a priori, but in some cases a soft sign can be placed after them. It does not soften the consonant in front, but is needed to preserve the grammatical form. Let's see in what cases this can happen:
- Feminine nouns (rye, silence, mouse).
- Verbs in all forms (drain, save, build, wash).
- For adverbs ending in h and sh (backwards, all the way) and one adverb with f (wide open).
When you do not need to put a soft sign after hissing:
- Masculine nouns (reeds, garage, guard).
- Short adjectives (nice, pretty, fresh).
- Adverbs on w except wide open (unbearable, married, already).
- Feminine plural genitive nouns (pears, clouds, bunches).
A little about the transfer
How to hyphenate words with a soft sign in the middle of a word? This is worth considering separately. Words with a soft sign in the middle of a word often cause difficulty whenyou need to move the word to another line. And there are many mistakes of this kind in the lyrics.
The transfer of words with a soft sign in the middle is carried out as follows: first you need to divide the word that you want to transfer into syllables. Remember that there are as many syllables as there are vowels in a word.
Step 1. Example: oh-oh-oh.
It is important to remember that when transferring a word with a separating soft sign to another line, it is impossible to separate the soft sign from the consonant in front - the transfer should be carried out only with it.
Step 2. Example: monkey (example of correct transfer).
Important detail: if the soft sign is located at the end of the word, it cannot be transferred to another line.
Wrong example: mother-in-law, love, bear.
Correct example: mother-in-law, love, honey.
When transferring, you cannot leave one letter on the line. This rule applies not only to words with a soft sign in the middle of a word, but also to any other related.
Exercise
Soft character in the middle of a word. Grade 1.
1. Underline those words in which the soft sign softens the leading consonant:
Weeds, elk, fire, trees, s alt, monkey, stakes, flat, letter, sable, deer, strong, trill, medallion, spruce forest, crane, horse, family, days, coat, caramel, judges, blood, love, nightingales, troublemaker, rigmarole, cortel, imposing.
2. Insert soft sign where needed:
Quiet_, reeds_, hear_, garage_, sleep_, birth_,courage_, mirage_, stove_, cut_, married_, good_, beach_, guard_, guard_, already_, wide open_, unbearable_, beach_, backhand_, shore_, carried away_, rook_, solid_.
3. Perform a phonetic analysis of these words (words can be given to children by variant or each child can be given an individual word):
Drapery, backstage, expanse, sommelier, barrier.
TSYA and TSYA - what is the right way?
Unfortunately, many people make a mistake in this seemingly elementary spelling. How do you know what to write at the end of a verb?
You just need to ask a question to the verb. If the verb answers the question "what to do", a soft sign is put. If the question is "what does it do?" - soft sign is not needed.
Example: get out (what to do?), agree (what to do?); show off (what to do?).
Remove (what is he doing?), negotiate (what is he doing?), show off (what is he doing?).
