The Russian language would not be great and powerful if it did not have a complex grammar. And to learn all the rules is not at all easy not only for foreign students, but also for native speakers. Even in the primary grades, when teaching spelling, schoolchildren face serious problems, one of which is dubious consonants. Examples of words with them cause a lot of difficulties and underlining with a red pen from an angry teacher in notebooks. How to dispel doubts? Let's try to find answers in this article.
Strong position
In which part of the word and in what environment this or that sound is located, its position depends: strong or weak. In a weak position, the sound loses its distinctive properties and becomes like another, stronger one. Thus, a strong position reveals all the properties of the sound and allows you to distinguish it from the rest in the stream.natural speech.
Certainly, a strong position for a vowel sound is its being under stress. In the word "hurry" the sound [e] is unstressed, so it can be easily mistaken for [and]. To check spelling, it is worth choosing a single-root word, where the desired vowel would be under stress - “haste”. Since the root of the word has not changed, we can conclude: the letter e is written in the word.
Strong position for consonants can be of two types: voiced and deaf, as well as hard and soft. In the first case, the consonant must either be after the vowel (floor, beat), or after the sonorant consonant, as well as the sound [v] (your, anger). The participation of the voice in vowels and sonorants helps to reveal the strengths of the consonant. In the case of hardness and softness, the strong position of the consonant is at the end of the word (angle - coal), before the vowel (they say - chalk), and also before the hard consonant (mock). Consonants in a strong position are intuitive to all native speakers. Therefore, they never cause difficulties for students and are easy to remember.
Weak position
It is she who causes the greatest difficulties in teaching spelling, since the sound in this position loses its distinctive properties. Instead of a voiced consonant, the student really wants to write a deaf consonant, and replace the hard one with a soft one. The morphological principle of writing words in Russian is to blame for this confusion - it is necessary to write all the significant parts of a word according to a standard pattern, not paying attention to the peculiarities of their pronunciation.
For vowelssounds is, of course, the position in an unstressed syllable: spring, milk. Sounds in this position lose longitude and strength. As mentioned above, to check the spelling of such words, it is necessary to select similar forms with the same sound in a strong position - under stress.
Consonants are much more difficult. If we talk about deafness and sonority, then a weak position in this case will be the position of the sound at the end of the word (tooth b), as well as in front of noisy deaf and voiced consonants (boat dk a, resda acha).
They make up dubious consonant examples in terms of softness/hardness: this is, first of all, likening the soft consonant in front (li stik, vsyo, sbor ik). More details about the features of writing a soft sign will be discussed in the penultimate chapter.
At the end of a word
In what positions are the most common words with doubtful consonants? The examples are very numerous, therefore, first of all, we will separately consider the final position - it is most common in the great and mighty.
Voiced consonants at the end of a word have a strong tendency to be stunned, since the pronunciation effort is reduced to a minimum by the end of the word. The sounds [f] in the word "lens", [w] in the word "swift" are dubious consonants. There are no examples of voicing at the end of Russian words.
Checking the spelling of such consonants is easy - you need to change the word form so that after an incomprehensible sound there is a vowel: "objectives", "swifts".
You should also remember about unverifiable cases: genitive plural (stol) and gerunds (falling, doing).
Doubtful consonants at the root of the word: examples and rules
The root of the word is the most important part that carries the meaning, so in no case should it be distorted. There are many cases when it is worth remembering the spelling of dubious consonants at the root of a word. Examples will follow.
First of all, choosing a test word with the same consonant in a strong position can greatly facilitate the writing of many words (lubrication - lubricate). The alternation of the consonants Mrs. and ts-ch is also sometimes found in Russian (kovrizhka - kovriga).
Double consonant
If the prefix and the root join with the same consonant, it is doubled (heartless, appeal). The same applies to the junction of two stems in compound words (chief physician). Often this feature is reflected in the pronunciation, so it does not cause difficulties.
There are other positions in which there are dubious consonants in the root: examples concern joints with suffixes. If the root ends in a double consonant, it remains before the suffix in full: ten-point, compromise.
Unverifiable dubious consonants at the root of the word will make the memory work hard. Examples can be found in the spelling dictionary: ato ll, gi bb on, kall igraphy, a couple of elograms, tennis and others.
Soft sign: needed or not
The softness of a consonant is often questioned. The problem here is that not only a soft sign can soften the sound, but also a vowel with an iot component (letters e, e, u, i, as well as i). Therefore, in words where such a vowel follows two consonants, a soft sign between them is not needed. This rule once again confirms what a complex phenomenon is dubious consonants. Examples: snowball, chick, racer, bridle.
A special point in this rule is the numerals from fifty to eighty, as well as from five hundred to nine hundred. The soft sign in the words six hundred, seven hundred remains as part of the stem in the compound word. Infinitives are written with a soft sign before the postfix, in contrast to the personal forms of the verb (learn well - they learn well). This also includes the plural imperative forms of the verb (sit down, drop it).
Doubtful and unpronounceable consonants: examples and rules
The confluence of three or more consonant sounds inevitably entails the loss of one of them, which is in the weakest position. The selection of a single-root word with this sound in a strong position will become a reliable assistant in this case as well. For example: hello - he alth, amateurish - amateur. But the word "ladder" will have to be remembered, because the test "ladder" will not help here.
How to stop doubting
Only a combination of different methods will help to deal forever with the many-sided problem of dubious consonants in Russian. First of all, you should takearmament selection of test words with consonants in a strong position. In addition to self-testing, searching for such forms is also an exciting activity that allows you to once again pay attention to your vocabulary.
Of course, there are many words that cannot be verified due to their origin or uniqueness. Such cases are collected in any spelling dictionary - a reliable assistant for anyone who wants to know the Russian language thoroughly.
And finally, do not despair - very few people can fully comprehend the complex grammar of the Russian language. Any spelling errors do not need to be treated too emotionally, it is enough just to correct them willingly and try to remember. Doubt is inherent not only in consonant sounds, but in each of us.
