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Guide to Pronunciation

There are five vowels: a, i, u, e, o, all of which have both short and long sounds, as noted below. The vowels, with different consonants, make up new sounds. The consonants c, l, q, v, and x do not appear, although ch (as in church) does. The vowels are pronounced as follows:

The consonants have virtually the same sounds as in English, except that g is always hard (as in get) and r is a sound between the English r and l. Double consonants, as in jetto (jet plane), irasshaimase (welcome, please come in), and suitchi (switch) must be pronounced as such, just as in English bookkeeper and penknife. Each syllable in a Japanese word should be pronounced distinctly, although in fairly rapid speech i and u are often elided, so that desu (am, is, are) sounds like dess, deshita (was, were) like desh’ta, and arimasuka (is there?, are there?), like arimas’ka. The accent in Japanese is slight and almost monotonous. However, the pitch rise and fall within phrase and sentence is recognized—e.g., háshi (chopsticks) and hashí (bridge), káki (oyster) and kakí (persimmon).