Грамматика русского языка. Часть 1. Глава 4. Русский алфавит. Согласные К, П, Т. Russian Grammar. Part 1. Russian Alphabet. Unit 4. The Consonants К, П, Т.

Now let us take up some sounds that will require a little practice - first, the letters п [peh], т [teh], and к [kah].

Attention!

Aspiration occurs when a short puff of breath is released after another sound, giving the effect of a slight hesitation or h-sound. It can be heard after the p in pie, the t in tie, and the k in kind. By contrast, the h-sound should not be heard after the p in please, the t in try, or after the hard c in clean.
Before you proceed to work intensively on the letters к, п, т, practice on the English words please, try, and clean so that you may be sure to avoid any aspiration when you pronounce the Russian к, п, т.

The letter К к [transcribed k]
The letter к [kah] sounds like the k-sound in clean. Once more, the aspiration heard after the k in English words like key and kind never occurs in Russian.
Examples:
как [kahk] how
кот [kawt] cat
класс [klahss] class

The letter П п [transcribed p]
The letter п [peh] sounds like the p in please.  The slight aspiration heard after the p in English words like pen and pie never occurs in Russian.
Examples:
суп [soop] soup
пакт [pahkt] pact
пост [pawst] post

The letter Т т [transcribed t]
The letter т [teh]  sounds like the t in try. Again, the aspiration heard after the t in such English words as tie and table never occurs in Russian.
Examples:
там [tahm] there
тон  [tawn] tone
тут [toot] here