日 本 語 道 場

[ h o m e | i n t r o | g r a m m a r | k a n j i | c u l t u r e ]
[ 入 門 - i n t r o ]
- i n t r o d u c t i o n
- h i r a g a n a
- k a t a k a n a
- o n w a r d !
[ 文 法 - g r a m m a r ]
- b a s i c s
- n o u n s . a n d
. a d j e c t i v e s
- p a r t i c l e s
- v e r b s
- p h r a s e s
- c o l l o q u i a l
- f o r m a l
[ 漢 字 - k a n j i ]
- b a s i c s
- l e s s o n s
[ 文 化 - c u l t u r e ]
- i n d e x
[ 雑 多 - m i s c ]
- a b o u t . m e
- l i n k s

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[ ひ ら が な - h i r a g a n a ]

The Hiragana Gojuuonzu

The first set of characters above are the 46 basic characters of the hiragana gojuuonzu, literally '50-sound chart.' If you shove the 'n' into the previous column, you have 10 rows of 5 characters (with 4 missing -- they were removed from the syllabary). The next 25 characters use diacritical marks, either a 'ten-ten,' two short strokes in the top right corner of the character, or a 'maru,' a circle in the same location. Ten-ten changes k, s, t, h to g, z, d, b respectively, maru changes h to p.

Vowel Sounds
Japanese pronunciation isn't too difficult if you just remember how the vowels are pronounced:
- a like in father
- i like in radio
- u like in studio
- e like in lend
- o like in hotel
There are also long vowel sounds which are pronounced the same as those above, only held twice as long. Most of these are written as the same character twice, except e which is written ei, and o, which is ou or oo depending on the word.

The R-Line
The consonant in Japanese that can be truly difficult is the R. In movies and TV shows you'll see jokes about pronouncing an L like an R; Japanese is actually the reverse. An R sounds quite a bit like a L, and is made by making an R sound while flicking your tongue off the roof of your mouth. The tricky part is making it sound natural, and that takes practice. Another important point to mention is that ra, ri, and re are pronounced with a wide mouth, but with ru and ro your mouth should be small and rounded.

Other Sounds
There are also sounds that use a character from the I-Column with a small (half-height) character from the Y-Line. They are listed below. Pronounciation is fairly simple if you remember that they are all one syllable only.

Small Tsu
An odd little addition to the Japanese language is the small tsu, which makes double consonants. Double consonants are held for two syllable-lengths without a vowel sound during that time. It's difficult to explain, but easier to understand through listening.

Putting It All Together
Now, let's practice some common words. Remember to pronounce each character as its own syllable.

-- ni-ho-n -- Japan -- chu-u-go-ku -- China
-- to-mo-da-chi -- friend           -- te-ki -- enemy
-- i-nu -- dog -- ne-ko -- cat
-- kyo-u -- today -- a-shi-ta -- tomorrow
-- sa-ka-na -- fish -- to-ri -- bird
-- a-i -- love -- ni-ku-shi-mi -- hatred
-- u-re-shi-i -- happy -- ka-na-shi-i -- sad
-- ha-i -- yes -- i-i-e -- no
-- a-n-ze-n -- safety -- ki-ke-n -- danger
-- ryo-ko-u -- travel, trip -- shi-go-to -- work
-- be-n-kyo-u -- study -- ya-su-mi -- rest, vacation
-- a-o-i -- blue -- a-ka-i -- red
-- so-ra -- sky -- ji-me-n -- ground
-- i-chi -- one -- ju-u -- ten
-- wa-ta-shi -- I, me -- a-na-ta -- you

Katakana →