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A note on pronunciation

Japanese learn good enunciation by repeating the syllabary below. The syllables should be pronounced short and crisp, staccato-like. Don’t lengthen the syllables in any way or add intonation. Keep them flat. The nearest approximations in English to the five Japanese vowels are: a as in “ah”, i as in “bit”, u as in “boot”, e as it “bet” and o as in bold.

Most importantly, be sure to pronounce the long vowels, marked with a macron in the text (except for ii), by prolonging the vowel sound, again without adding intonation. If you don’t make them long, it will affect the meaning and people won’t understand what you’re saying.

The romanized script in this book is a good guide to pronunciation but always pronounce "g" hard, as in "get." Also, the final "u" is silent in the syllable - su , so that desu is pronounced "dess." When pronouncing double consonants such as chotto or zannen , pause slightly before the second syllable.