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Pronunciation GUIDE

Pronunciation of Japanese is relatively easy. Once you acquire basic knowledge about Japanese sounds and master them with the help of a native speaker or with the help of recorded materials, you will not have much difficulty. There are five vowels in Japanese. In this book these vowels are written; a, i, u, e, and o, or あ, い, う, え and お in hiragana.

a	あ	like the a in ha ha!
i	い	like the i in Bali
u	う	like the u in June, but shorter in length
e	え	like the e in pet
o	お	like the o in colt

Long and short vowels

Long vowels are written in this book as ā, ii, ū, ē, and ō. Don’t confuse these with what are called long vowels in English. In Japanese, a long vowel is sustained twice as long as a short one, but the sound of the vowel remains the same. Therefore, it is often the length of the vowel that distinguishes one word from another. Note the important difference in meaning made by the short and long vowel in the following pairs.

obasan	おばさん	aunt	obāsan	おばあさん	grandmother
ojisan	おじさん	uncle	ojiisan	おじいさん	grandfather
kuki	くき	stem	kūki	くうき	air
e	え	picture	ē	ええ	yes
oku	おく	to put	ōku	おおく	plenty

Syllables

Japanese think of their words as being composed of syllables, each syllable taking one beat. A Japanese syllable may be any one of the following:

1. One short vowel only: a, i, u, e, o.

2. The first or second half of any long vowel (ā, ii, ū, ē, and ō). Therefore, one long vowel equals two syllables.

3. A consonant + a vowel:

ka	か	ki	き	ku	く	ke	け	ko	こ
sa	さ	shi	し	su	す	se	せ	so	そ
ta	た	chi	ち	tsu	つ	te	て	to	と
na	な	ni	に	nu	ぬ	ne	ね	no	の
ha	は	hi	ひ	fu	ふ	he	へ	ho	ほ
ma	ま	mi	み	mu	む	me	め	mo	も
ya	や	–	–	yu	ゆ	–	–	yo	よ
ra	ら	ri	り	ru	る	re	れ	ro	ろ
ga	が	gi	ぎ	gu	ぐ	ge	げ	go	ご
za	ざ	ji	じ	zu	ず	ze	ぜ	zo	ぞ
da	だ	–	–	–	–	de	で	do	ど
ba	ば	bi	び	bu	ぶ	be	べ	bo	ぼ
pa	ぱ	pi	ぴ	pu	ぷ	pe	ぺ	po	ぽ
ja	じゃ	–	–	ju	じゅ	–	–	jo	じょ
wa	わ	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–

4. The consonant n (ん) (when not attached to a vowel). This syllable only appears:

(a) at the end of a word: hon (book)

(b) in the middle of a word:

(i) when followed by a consonant: konnichi wa (hello)

(ii) when followed by a vowel or y:

kin-en

きんえん

no smoking

un-yu

うんゆ

transportation

Failure to pronounce the sounds exactly as marked by the hyphen may change the meaning of the word.

kin-en	きんえん	no smoking	ki-nen	きねん	commemoration
shin-in	しんいん	new member(s)	shi-nin	しにん	dead persons

In some older books, the consonant n is written m in romaji before the sounds b, m, and p. However, we shall continue to write it as n in this book.

sanbyaku	さんびゃく	three hundred
sanman	さんまん	thirty thousand
sanpo	さんぽ	walk

5. A combination of sounds: a consonant + the consonant y (or h) + a vowel:

kya	きゃ	kyu	きゅ	kyo	きょ
sha	しゃ	shu	しゅ	sho	しょ
cha	ちゃ	chu	ちゅ	cho	ちょ
nya	にゃ	nyu	にゅ	nyo	にょ
hya	ひゃ	hyu	ひゅ	hyo	ひょ
mya	みゃ	myu	みゅ	myo	みょ
rya	りゃ	ryu	りゅ	ryo	りょ
gya	ぎゃ	gyu	ぎゅ	gyo	ぎょ
bya	びゃ	byu	びゅ	byo	びょ
pya	ぴゃ	pyu	ぴゅ	pyo	ぴょ

6. The first consonant (only the first) of certain double consonants: kk, ss, ssh, tt, tch, tts, pp. Failure to give a full beat to this syllable may change the meaning of the word.

shitte	しって	knowing	shite	して	doing
kitte	きって	a stamp	kite	きて	coming
issho	いっしょ	together	isho	いしょ	last will
hikkaku	ひっかく	to scratch	hikaku	ひかく	comparison
matchi	マッチ	a match	machi	まち	town
itta	いった	went	ita	いた	board, plank

Pronunciation of consonants

1. The Japanese r seems to give the most trouble to speakers of other languages. If you pronounce ra, ri, ru, re, and ro with exactly the same r as in English, you will not produce the correct Japanese sound. The Japanese r resembles a combination of the English r and l. So, relax your tongue and first practice saying la, li, lu, le and lo. Next, close the lips more, hold them fairly steady, and pronounce the same sounds without rolling your tongue. You will be able to produce the correct Japanese ra, ri, ru, re and ro that way.

2. The Japanese f as in Fuji-san, “Mt Fuji,” is very different from the English f in which you touch the lower lip with the upper teeth to get the sound. In Japanese, this is not done. The Japanese f is pronounced more like the English h.

3. The Japanese final n in such words as hon, “book,” and Nihon or Nippon, “Japan,” is a little different from the English final n in which the tongue touches the palate just behind the upper teeth, as in “one” and “ten.” The Japanese final n is nasalized and more relaxed; the tongue does not touch the upper palate.

4. All other consonants should be pronounced as they are in English.

Pronunciation of syllables

You must learn to pronounce each syllable clearly and with the same amount of stress. Each syllable must be equal in length. Note the number of syllables in the examples below. Remember, each syllable gets one beat, so a long vowel gets counted as two syllables. Give one beat to the consonant n and to the first consonant of the double consonant.

Ohayō.	おはよう。	o-ha-yo-o (4)	Good morning.
Ohayō gozaimasu.	おはよう ございます。	o-ha-yo-o- go-za-i-ma-su (9)	Good morning.
Konnichi wa.	こんにちは。	ko-n-ni-chi-wa (5)	Hello.
Konban wa.	こんばんは。	ko-n-ba-n-wa (5)	Good evening.
hikkaku	ひっかく	hi-k-ka-ku (4)	to scratch

Don’t put a heavy stress on any syllable. Particularly avoid the “potato” accent (a heavy stress on the second syllable of a three-syllable word) and the “macaroni” accent (a heavy stress on the third syllable of a four-syllable word). Practice the following proper names.

Matsui	まつい	Hashimoto	はしもと
Nakao	なかお	Matsumoto	まつもと
Tanaka	たなか	Takahashi	たかはし
Yamada	やまだ	Yamanaka	やまなか

Remember: keep each syllable clear, equal in length, and even in stress.

Phrasing

In English, a preposition such as “in,” “for,” “of,” or “at” is usually pronounced as a single unit: “in the ocean,” “during my vacation,” “for the company,” “at seven o’clock.” In Japanese, a particle (which often follows a noun) is pronounced as a part of the noun or noun phrase that precedes it. In the following sentence, a slash indicates the correct phrasing.

Kōhii o / kudasai.	コーヒーを/ ください。	Please give me a cup of coffee.
Sukiyaki ga /tabetai desu.	すきやきが/ たべたいです。	I want to eat sukiyaki.
Nara e / ikitai desu.	ならへ/いきたいです。	I want to go to Nara.

If you get used to this phrasing, you can perceive each of the three sentence above as comprising two units rather than three—which makes your learning much easier. (Think how easy it is to learn telephone numbers when you think of them not as seven separate digits but as two units—three digits plus four digits, as in 555-3561.)

This phrasing rule is one of the most important in Japanese. In the numbered sentence-pattern models you will be studying, the phrasing is clearly marked with a slash. You need not always pause while speaking, but if you do, make sure that the pause comes where it is marked in the sentence patterns in this book. Your Japanese will sound much more natural to Japanese ears.