Pronunciation of зелёный

Question

I have listened to it about a thousand times and i still cannot get it , зелёный

Is it like this zyelyoный? I can say the end but is the beginning right, thank you 🙏

Answer 1

Yes, but avoid the hard connection in the zye and lyo, the phoneme [y] should not create a barrier between the adjacent sounds, instead it must smoothly connect them so the 1st flows into the 3d.

Also mind you that due to reduction in an unstressed position зе- should be pronounced as зи-

So I would transcribe them as zee and lio or better yet, with the view of the English pronunciation as leo -> zeeleoniy