Speaking and pronunciation
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
Speaking and pronunciation · Page 28
Japanese Noshi and Mizuhiki Envelopes: Knots, Colours and What to Write
Choose a Japanese money or gift envelope by asking whether the occasion should happen again: a bow knot, chō-musubi, for births and thank-yous; a fixed knot, musubi-kiri or awaji-musubi, for weddings, illness and funerals; write the purpose above the cord.
12 min readJapanese Cherry Blossom Forecast: Sakura Zensen, Kaika and Mankai
A Japanese cherry blossom forecast predicts two dates for each city's sample tree: kaika, when five or six flowers open, and mankai, when about 80 percent of the buds are open; joined on a map, the dates form the sakura zensen.
12 min readJapanese Vending Machine Labels: Hot, Cold, Sold Out and Change
On a Japanese drink vending machine, つめたい means cold and あたたかい means warm. 売切 or 売り切れ means sold out. おつり refers to change, 返却 to returning money, and 取出口 to the collection opening. Read the label under the exact drink you want before paying or pressing a button.
10 min readJapanese Pitch Accent for Common Verbs: Accented, Unaccented and How Forms Move
Every Japanese verb belongs to one of two pitch groups, unaccented verbs that stay high to the end and accented verbs that fall on the second-to-last mora, and once you know a verb's group you can predict its masu, te and nai forms by rule.
13 min readJapanese Pitch Accent Homophones: Hashi, Ame, Kami, Kaki and Ima Explained
Hashi can mean chopsticks, bridge or edge, and ame can mean rain or candy; the sounds are identical, and in standard Tokyo Japanese the only thing that separates them in speech is where the pitch falls, or whether it falls at all.
13 min readPronouncing Long Katakana Words: Sūpāmāketto, Konbiniensu Sutoa and Arubaito
Long katakana words become easy once you stop treating them as English and count them in moras: every ー, ッ and ン takes a full beat, the pitch usually falls near the end, and the word splits into chunks you can drill one at a time.
13 min readJapanese Ryo, Ryu and Rya Sounds: How to Say Ryokō, Ryūgaku and Ryōri
The Japanese sounds rya, ryu and ryo are a single quick tap of the tongue followed by a y glide, all inside one mora, and the trick is to start from ri and shorten it rather than to say r and y as two separate sounds.
13 min readPronouncing the Particles Wa, O and E: Why は, を and へ Sound Different
The particles は, を and へ are pronounced wa, o and e, not ha, wo and he, and they should be glued to the end of the word before them, unstressed and at the pitch that word hands them, rather than spoken as separate little words.
13 min readJapanese Emphasis and Stress: How to Sound Emphatic Without English Stress
Japanese has no word stress, so it emphasises with tools English rarely uses, lengthening a mora, inserting a pause, choosing a particle such as wa, koso or yo, and widening the pitch range, and importing English stress makes speech sound foreign and hard to follow.
12 min readPronouncing Japanese Numbers Clearly: Ichi, Shichi, Hachi and Counters
Japanese numbers are misheard mainly because ichi, shichi and hachi share their endings, so clear speakers keep the first mora sharp, choose nana over shichi when it is ambiguous, and learn the handful of counters whose sounds change.
12 min readJapanese Shi, Chi and Ji: How to Pronounce し ち じ Correctly
The Japanese sounds shi, chi and ji are close to English sh, ch and j but made with a flatter tongue and relaxed lips, and they are the odd ones out in their kana rows, which is why they trip up so many learners.
12 min readJapanese Pronunciation Mistakes by First Language: English to Hindi
Your first language predicts your Japanese pronunciation errors: English speakers stress and diphthongise, Chinese speakers curl the tongue and clip vowels, Korean speakers aspirate, Vietnamese speakers drop final sounds, Spanish speakers add vowels, and Hindi speakers over-aspirate and retroflex.
13 min readPractical guides
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