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Questions & Answers about Спасибо, я понимаю.
Why is спасибо pronounced with an "a" sound at the end when it is spelled with an о?
In Russian, the letter о is only pronounced like a clear "o" when the emphasis (stress) is on that syllable. In спасибо, the stress is on the middle syllable (си). Because the final о is unstressed, it weakens and sounds like an "a".
Why does the verb понимаю end in -ю?
Russian verbs change their endings depending on who is doing the action. The dictionary form of the verb is понимать (to understand). To say "I understand", you remove the -ть and add -ю to match the pronoun я (I).
The first letter of понимаю is п followed by о. Does that о also sound like an "a"?
Yes, exactly! Just like in спасибо, the letter о in the first syllable of понимаю is not stressed (the stress is on the а). Therefore, it also reduces to an "a" sound, making the word sound like "pa-ni-MA-yu".
How would I say "I am understanding" or "I do understand"?
You would still just say я понимаю. Russian does not have a separate continuous tense (like "am understanding") or use helper words like "do" in the present tense. This one phrase covers all of those meanings!