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Pronunciation

Japanese pronunciation is really easy, but a little different from what you may be used to in English. Here we will introduce the vowels first, then the consonants, and then will show how these can be combined to form Japanese sounds and words.

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Vowels

There are five vowels in Japanese: a, i, u, e, o.

Vowel	Approximate sound	Notes
a	father
i	meaty
u	flute	lips are "pursed" rather than "rounded"
e	egg
o	old

You can remember them using the mnemonic "Ah, we soon get old.".

Japanese vowels are pure, so if two vowels are written next to each other, do not blend them together; pronounce them separately. For example, hae would be pronounced something like "ha-eh" rather than like the word "hay".

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Consonants

There are 14 consonants in Japanese: k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w, g, z, d, b, p.

Five of the consonants produce a modified sound depending on the vowel they are attached to.

Clear	Voiced	Plosive
k	g
s	z
t	d
n
h	b	p
m
y
r
w

For learning Japanese Category Uncategorized Level Unspecified Second language English Created Apr 22, 2008 16:48 Views 3895 Share:

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  ImReallyBatman 6 month(s) ago

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  Learn Those Kana
  http://www.bateru.com/jquery/learn-those-kana/index.html
  I made it and it should help with learning hiragana and katakana.
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  woelan 6 month(s) ago

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  this explanation is clear enough than any books that i have read especially about how to pronounce the vowels.
  but not with the consonants....
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  Abraksas 6 month(s) ago

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  I don't really get the consonants but still nice.
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  kid 6 month(s) ago

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  nak copy
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  Marie Bio 6 month(s) ago

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  good notes ..
  thanks !
  thank you for the explanation kunkun ! ^_^