How do you pronounce S's in Russian?

Answer 1

English speakers consider there to be only one "s" sound - the same phoneme at the beginning of the word "same" is at the beginning of "serious" or "silly."

In Russian, there are two different "s" sounds, typically called "hard s" and "soft s." In linguistic terms, "hard s" is realized as a full alveolar fricative, while "soft s" is a palatalized alveolar fricative.

In layman's terms, "hard s" is roughly equivalent to "s" in English. A native English speaker can best produce a "soft s" by tightening the corners of the mouth (i.e. smiling) and letting the tip of the tongue rest towards a point further back in the mouth than it would for a normal "s."