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- "Осень — моё любимое время го…
38 Comments
787
This is a lovely little gem. I wonder why it's not included in materials that cover gender.
I've been told that in standard everyday speech, they are indistinguishable because unstressed vowels get reduced (like "о" and "а" that become the same sound when unstressed).
When someone pronounces a word slowly for some reason however (maybe for example when asked "What did you say?"), then all vowels are pronounced differently, as in stressed position. Apparently native speakers make this "pronunciation shift" automatically, but still "think" unconsciously as if they were pronouncing definite "о" or "а". Except for some Russian dialects that always pronounce "о" as "о".
"о" & "а" should certainly be indistinguishable here: unless they are stressed or, possibly, at the end of the word, "о" & "а" are pronounced the same in standard Russian (and in the latter case, the difference is quite subtle, so in the first approximation you can ignore it as well). As for unstressed "е" vs "я" - I think I can hear the difference, but once again it's subtle. The context should take care of this.
367
Fall and authum is the same thing... Why give to meanings to a word if you're only gonna accept one.?
367
My favourite time of year and my favourite time of the year.. Mean the exact same thing.... Sort it out