As you might have noticed, in Russian we distinguish between "hard" and "soft" consonants. Most consonants, the way they appear in the alphabet, are "hard" by default. When any such consonant is followed by Я, Е, Ё, Ю, И, or by the "soft sign" Ь, it becomes "soft" (palatalized). This means that we pronounce the consonant as if we were going to add the sound Y (as in "yes") after. The word pairs in this audio demonstrate this difference - take a listen!
