O that sounds like an A in Russian
Russian can be quite confusing and challenging when it goes to reading. Here I collected some explanations which can clarify the concept of reading an O as an A.
1/ There is no actual rule behind it but an O can't be pronounced as an A if it is stressed. Usually, if the word starts with an O or has an O in it chances are these sounds are pronounced more like an A if they are not stressed.
2/ But! The sound itself is somewhere between O and A, it is not a pure A sound. And, since the letter is not stressed the sound is very unclear and muffled.
спаси́бо (thank you) is pronounced more like спа_си́_ба [spɐˈsʲibə] because an O is not stressed
огуре́ц - а_гу_рец (cucumber)
Москва́ - Маск_ва (Moscow)
столи́ца - ста_лица (capital)
But о́сень [ˈosʲɪnʲ] (autumn) pronounced as it's written because an O is stressed
О́мск (Omsk - a Russian city)
If there is more than one O in a word then the stressed one is pronounced as O and the pronunciation of others is usually more flexible
остано́вка - а_ста_нов_ка (bus stop)
воро́на - ва_ро_на (raven)
3/ You can use wiktionary to check the pronunciation of each word through transcription and recording. It contains semantic properties of each word, their definitions and much much more!
idk but it seems tumblr won't let me add a clickable link to the fully educational source... so here it is so you can manually add to the search bar or so
https://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/Викисловарь:Заглавная_страница
4/ It is about dialect. Moscow's pronunciation is different from the northern regions of Russia. The same refers to the southern regions. But because Moscow is a huge city with millions of citizens their pronunciation is well-known and widely used.
Moscow residents tend to use A sound more often and the northern Russians usually pronounce words with an O as they are written. So, technically there is nothing wrong with reading those words as they are.
5/ my conclusion. I suggest not to pay too much attention to it if you are a beginner. There is nothing wrong with your accent tho so just keep going. Listen more to Russian speech through you-tube, music, podcasts, movies etc and try to repeat the sentences out loud after you hear them so you get used to the sounds and you will naturally adapt to pronounce them properly.
izzy806
snowghoul
2087
dededos
annaxmalina
discoholicmusic
tangentwithtanner
prguitarman
