Отрицательные предложения в русском: тренировка для начинающих

What does “не” mean and how is it pronounced in Russian?

Russian negation is one word: не (ne), placed directly before the verb. Day-one learners meet it in я не понимаю (“I don’t understand”). But the particle sounds nothing like it looks — the е is unstressed, so it reduces to something close to и. You write не, you say something like ni. This is Russian vowel reduction at its most practical: the spelling stays the same; the vowel quietly shifts.

Russian unstressed е commonly reduces this way. The teacher puts it plainly: «Мы видим Е, но слышим И» — “We see Е, but we hear И.” The same rule explains метро (the е is unstressed, so it edges toward i) versus клиент (the е is stressed, so it stays a clear е). Once you hear the pattern in не, you’ll catch it across the whole language.