A couple Russian Quesitons :D

I just started learning Russian recently, and I have a couple questions.
It would be great if anyone could help me

is there any difference between тут and вот?

In my book, they never seem to use the hard and soft signs (ь and ъ)
instead they talk about hard and soft constonants and which vowels go after them:

Hard consonants + а о у э ы
Soft consonants + я ю ё и е

With that said, does that mean that the actual hard and soft signs are never used, and that its more or less understood which consonant is hard/soft because of the vowel that follows it? I hope that makes sense lol

Спасибо

hard and soft signs are used, for example:
(hard) подъезд - podyezd
(soft) мыть - myt'

soft sign is used after consonants and indicates their softness. if it occurs between a consonant and a vowel, then consonant is soft and you must pronounce "y" sound before the vowel. (счастье for ex.)
hard sign occurs between a consonant and a vowel. it shows that the consonant is hard and there is y sound before the vowel.

тут means "here"
вот is "here it is"
you can say моя сумка тут - my bag is here and вот моя сумка - here is my bag
also вот can mean some other things:http://lingvo.yandex.ru/вот/по-английски/

Originally Posted by haydee

hard and soft signs are used, for example:
(hard) подъезд - podyezd
(soft) мыть - myt'

soft sign is used after consonants and indicates their softness. if it occurs between a consonant and a vowel, then consonant is soft and you must pronounce "y" sound before the vowel. (счастье for ex.)
hard sign occurs between a consonant and a vowel. it shows that the consonant is hard and there is y sound before the vowel.

тут means "here"
вот is "here it is"
you can say моя сумка тут - my bag is here and вот моя сумка - here is my bag
also вот can mean some other things:http://lingvo.yandex.ru/вот/по-английски/

Thank you

So does that mean that for every consonant, there's a hard and soft form?
Also could you show how to pronounce "тебя" ? I always thought it was something like "tyeh-bya," but I was listening to the song "Я тебя люблю" and they pronounce it "chee-bya" .. Have I been pronouncing it wrong? lol

Originally Posted by xXalanaXx

Thank you

So does that mean that for every consonant, there's a hard and soft form?

Almost. ж, ш, ц are always hard, щ, ч are soft. If ж/ш is followed by soft sign (for ex. мышь, дрожь) they are still hard .

who sings that song? tyeh-bya is the correct pronounciation.

Originally Posted by haydee

who sings that song? tyeh-bya is the correct pronounciation.

вот ...

[SuknjaNM4Xs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuknjaNM4Xs[/video]

the singer isn't russian and he says it with heavy accent XD
also this site is useful to check pronounciation: www.forvo.com

Originally Posted by haydee

the singer isn't russian and he says it with heavy accent XD
also this site is useful to check pronounciation: www.forvo.com

спасибо

I was gna say, he doesn't sound too Russian. And the way he's been pronouncing it
has been really annoying lol

no problem ^^