Pronunciation
Let's learn the pronunciation ! Japanese pronunciation can be broken down into 101 single sounds. Each sound is transcribed into the English alphabet as you can see in the charts below. This way of transcribing is called rōmaji. Click on each character to listen to the pronunciation.
Chart for 68 sounds
*2 "di" doesn't exist. It becomes "ji".
*3 "du" doesn't exist. It becomes "zu".
Chart for additional 33 sounds
Double vowels
There are a lot of words which have double vowels such as "aa" or "oo". To transcribe double vowels, a straight line (-) on top of a vowel is used. e.g: ā , ō
okāsan
おかあさん
mother
pronounced as "okaasan"
haiyū
はいゆう
actor
pronounced as "haiyuu"
It is very important to make a distinction between double vowels and a single vowel ! Double or single vowel makes a completely different word !
biru
ビル
building
bīru
ビール
beer
Double consonants
There are many words that have double consonants.
yukkuri
ゆっくり
slowly
zasshi
ざっし
magazine
Mute vowels
The short vowels "i" and "u" are sometimes silent in the following cases;
1 - When they are placed between consonants k, s, t, h or p.
2 - When they are preceded by consonants k, s, t, h or p at the end of the word.
suteki desu
すてき です
lovely is
It is lovely
sukī o shimashita
スキー を しました
ski did
I skied.
Words with foreign origins
In Japanese, there are a lot of words that come from foreign languages, especially from English. Since single consonant sounds do not exist in Japanese (except some "mute vowels" cases), a vowel is attached to every consonant. This certainly sounds strange for English speakers !
kurisumasu
クリスマス
Christmas
makudonarudo
マクドナルド
Macdonald
Accentuation (Stress)
Japanese words have "pitch accent". "Pitch accent" means that certain sounds in a word are higher than other sounds. Depending on where you place the pitch accent, certain words could mean completely different ! There are three primary types of Japanese pitch accent.
When you stress on these sounds, the length of the vowels DO NOT change !
1 - The first sound is higher than the rest.
ふじさん
Mt. Fuji
はし
chopsticks
2 - The first sound is lower than the rest.
わたし
I, me
はし
bridge
くるま
car
3 - The middle part of the word is higher than the rest.
あなた
you
なつやすみ
summer holiday
ひらがな
hiragana
カタカナ
katakana
Probably the second type is the most difficult for English speakers. Try to keep the middle and the rest of the sounds "high" !
Now you can listen and pronounce Japanese sounds !