Е, Ё, Ю and Я are ye, yo, yu and ya at the start of a word or after a vowel; after a consonant they soften it instead. Ё is always stressed, though most texts print it as Е. Э is a plain e, and Ы is an i said with the tongue pulled back. The soft sign Ь has no sound of its own: it softens the consonant before it (фильм). The rare hard sign Ъ makes you say the y of the vowel after it on its own: объект is ab-YEKT.
Examples
- компьютер
- computer - ь softens the п, ю is yu: kam-PYU-ter
- музыка
- music - ы is the i said further back: MU-zy-ka
- актёр
- actor - ё is yo and always stressed: ak-TYOR
The mistake to avoid
Don't say Ь as a vowel: it only softens the consonant before it, so фильм is one syllable.
Where this fits in
The Russian alphabet, Russian A1: Read Cyrillic letter by letter and sound out your first Russian words - many of them you already know.