Russian Vowels - E, Я, Э https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FsRK1NE8og

'э' sounds close to article 'a' е: 1) in the beginning of the word and after a vowel: е =[йэ] = [ ye], close to 'ye' in 'yellow' еда = [йэда] поезд = [пойэзд] 2) after the consonant 'е' softens the preceding consonant letter е = [ ьэ ] лес = [льэс]

Hello! There are 2 Russian letters: "Е" and "Э" There are 2 different sounds: / ɛ / and / e / You can read about the difference between / ɛ / and / e / here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_front_unrounded_vowel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-mid_front_unrounded_vowel Е can be read as 1. / yɛ / 2. / ɛ / 3. / e / You use 1st variant in all cases except when "e" is after consonant. If the consonant is palatalizable you use 3rd variant, if not - 2nd variant. The letter Э is always read as / ɛ / Best regards, Yevgeniy, Russian language italki tutor.

It's worth noting that in a lot of borrowed words (e.g. "интернет", "майонез", "темп") "е" does not follow the "normal" rules covered in the answers below but instead is pronounced exactly as if it were "э".

I don't agree with some given answers. In russian alphabet there is two different letters: Е and Э. But in russian phonology there is only one phoneme: Э. There is no phoneme Е, it doesn't exist. Both the letter Е and the letter Э mean the same phoneme: Э. The difference is: (1.) Letter Э always means only phoneme Э. (2.) And the letter Е, (2.1.) when its position in word is (2.1.1.) after vowel or (2.1.2.) in the beginning of a word, than the letter Е means two phonemes at once: ЙЭ; (2.2.) and after consonants the letter Е means that the previous consonant becomes soft and the letter Е means the phoneme Э. Examples: (1.) мЭр - should sound like this: hard consonant М, than vowel Э, than consonant Р — letter Е means phoneme Э (2.1.1.) поЕхать - consonant П, vowel О, consonant Й, vowel Э, consonant Х, etc. — letter Е means phonemes Й Э (2.1.2.) Еда - consonant Й, than vowel Э, than consonant Д, than vowel А — letter Е means phonemes Й Э (2.2.) лЕс - Л should be soft because of Е, than vowel Э, than consonant С — letter Е makes the previous consonant Л to be soft and means phoneme Э