In Russian, some words look the same in writing but are pronounced differently and have different meanings. These words are called homographs.
Here are a few examples:
🐿️ бе́лки (squirrels) — 🥚 белки́ (egg whites; proteins)
🥃 ви́ски (whiskey) — 👤 виски́ (temples — sides of the head)
☀️ жа́ркое (hot) — 🍲 жарко́е (meat stew)
🌾 хло́пок (cotton) — 👏 хлопо́к (clap)
🏰 за́мок (castle) — 🔒 замо́к (lock)
Even changing the stress by just one syllable can completely change a word’s meaning, so pay close attention to the stress when learning new Russian words.
You can check the correct stress using this dictionary.
To be continued… More tips on Russian stress coming soon.
💬 Have you come across other Russian homographs? Share them in the comments!
You can also check out more tricky Russian words, like those with silent consonants, in this post.
Activity
Match each image with its corresponding word by dragging the words onto the correct pictures. If you make a mistake, click the tape connecting the word and the picture to detach them. Click the tick in the bottom right corner to check your answers.
- If you are using a mobile device, tap the expand icon in the top right corner and the exercise will open in a new window.