Hi, I’ve just created a LingQ account and tried my very first Russian lesson here (I’ve been doing Russian lessons on Duolingo for a month or two). I noticed that the word твоё appears without the dots/umlauts on the e; in other words it’s the wrong letter. Is this just a typo or is there something wrong with the way things are being displayed on my computer?
The word is here:
I’m using Linux and tried looking at the word in Firefox (58.0.2) and Chrome (64.0.3282.140). I also tried the three different fonts that are available.
It completely normal for Е to be used instead of Ё in Russian texts, you will find many more which include spellings like ‘твое’ or ‘ребенок’. It’s not a display issue, but it is a case of inconsistent spelling because the word моё appears on the first page, so the author must have meant to also write твоё. The letter Ё is often used in texts for learners, but don’t be surprised if it’s missing.
BTW, one way to figure out what the spelling really is (e with or without the two dots), is to listen to the audio as the two letters are pronounced differently. Generally the stress is on the syllable with the ё.
The previous responses are absolutely correct. The text-to-speech feature helps distinguish this, too. Maybe it’s worth noting that this situation is unique to е and ё, whereas the mark on й is an integral part of the letter and is never omitted.
BTW, you said you tried the three fonts available in the reader. I find the serif font makes it much easier to visually distinguish л and п in the middle of a word. It may sound stupid, but I’ve been tripped up by that.
Yes, we don’t usually put two dots over ‘e’ in our books and by writing.
The native Russians understand that we have to pronounce “ё” under stress and with the neuter nouns with ‘my’ and ‘your’: “моё окно, твоё зеркало”.
But we have this letter with double dots over it in some special textbooks for foreign learners.
I try to put it in my courses for beginners here like “Русский с нуля”, “Первые шаги”, “Базовые модели”.
However, I can forget to do it sometimes.
But I tend not to put two dots in my courses for the intermediate level like it really happens in our books and newspapers.