Japanese Pronunciation Guide

Japanese is not a tonal language like Chinese or Thai, and is comparatively easy to pronounce. [ Japanese Vowels Japanese has both short and long vowels and the distinction is often important. In romanized Japanese, long vowels are marked with a macron, so that ō represents “long O”. Japanese characters (ひらがな) | a | i | u | e | 0 | | あ | い | う | え | お | k | か | き | く | け | こ | s | さ | し | す | せ | そ | t | た | (ち) | (つ) | て | と | n | な | に | ぬ | ね | の | h | は | ひ | ふ | へ | ほ | m | ま | み | む | め | も | y | や | | ゆ | | よ | r | ら | り | る | れ | ろ | w | わ | | | | を | ん (n) | | | | | | g | が | ぎ | ぐ | げ | ご | z | ざ | じ | ず | ぜ | ぞ | d | だ | (ぢ) | (づ) | で | ど | b | ば | び | ぶ | べ | ぼ | p | ぱ | ぴ | ぷ | ぺ | ぽ | ky | きゃ | | きゅ | | きょ | sy | しゃ | | しゅ | | しょ | ty | (ちゃ) | | (ちゅ) | | （ちょ） | hy | ひゃ | | ひゅ | | ひょ | gy | ぎゃ | | ぎゅ | | ぎょ | zy | じゃ | | じゅ | | じょ | by | びゃ | | びゅ | | びょ | ch | ちゃ | ち | ちゅ | | ちょ | j | じゃ | じ | じゅ | | じょ | sh | しゃ | し | しゅ | | しょ | ts | | | つ | | | f | | | ふ | | | a あ/ア like ‘a’ in “father” i い/イ like ‘i’ in “machine” u う/ウ like ‘oo’ in “hoop” e え/エ like ‘e’ in “set” o お/オ like ‘o’ in “rope” n ん/ン short ‘n’ at the end of a syllable, pronounced as ‘m’ before ‘b’, ‘p’ or ‘m’. Note that “u” is often weak at the end of syllables. In particular, the common endings -desu and -masu are pronounced as “des’” and “mas’” respectively. Japanese Consonants k かきくけこ like ‘k’ in “king” g like ‘g’ in “go” s like ‘s’ in “sit” z like ‘z’ in “haze” t like ‘t’ in “top” d like ‘d’ in “dog” n like ‘n’ in “nice” h like ‘h’ in “help” p like ‘p’ in “pig” b like ‘b’ in “bed” m like ‘m’ in “mother” y like ‘y’ in “yard” r like ‘r’ in “row” (actually a sound between ‘l’ and ‘r’, but closer to ‘r’) w like ‘w’ in “wall” ch (t before i) like ‘ch’ in “touch” sh (s before i) like ‘sh’ in “sheep” ts (t before u) like ‘ts’ in “hot soup” f (h before u) like ‘f’ in “far” j (d before i) like ‘j’ in “jar” (Article from/based on Wikitravel article and may be copied freely) | |