Spelling Rules

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I hate my textbook sometimes. I can't find a single coherent explanation of either of these spelling rules - just bits of them here and there. This is what I've put together:

After the letters г, к, х, ж ш, щ and ц, the letter ы is always written as и.
After the letters ш, ж, ч, щ, and ц, the letter о is written as е if it's not stressed.

Am I close? I'd really like to have these right before I tattoo them to my forehead.

Comments

[yers.livejournal.com]

After the letters г, к, х, ж ш, щ and ц, the letter ы is always written as и.
Three separate rules there.
ы is written и after ж and ш.
ы is both written and pronounced и фаеук г,к,х,ч, and щ. The phonetic combinations [чы] and [щы] cannot exist in Russian, and [гы], [кы], [хы] occur very rarely in some Turkic loanwords.

With ц, the general rule is "ци" in foreign words (цистерна, галлицизм), "цы" in native words and in case endings (цыплёнок, отцы). Both are pronounced [цы], of course.

After the letters ш, ж, ч, щ, and ц, the letter о is written as е if it's not stressed.
Yes. You can think of "о" after these letters as a virtual "ё".

errata

[yers.livejournal.com]

instead of "фаеук", read "after". :)

[langwidere.livejournal.com]

I learned those in my textbook as the 7-letter spelling rule (because in the first there are 7 letters that you have to watch out for) and the 5-letter spelling rule (five letters to watch out for).

The comment above is a lot more insightful, but I think the "spelling rules" are easy to remember for beginners. =)

[losiki.livejournal.com]

[Unknown site tag] made it clear, so I've got just one thing to add. There're two simple rhymes to simplify memorization of rules.

"жи"-"ши" пиши с буквой "и". One must write "и" after "ж", "ш"

Цыган на цыпочках цыплёнку цыкнул "цыц"! These are all the words, which have "ы" after "ц" in their roots in russian. Other words have "и" after "ц".

>After the letters ш, ж, ч, щ, and ц, the letter о is written as е if it's not stressed.
You mean "ё"? Nope. Example: шофё'р