Japanese pronunciation rules and words to remember

So, let's read in Japanese. You need to start this lesson after you have thoroughly mastered the first Lesson of the Japanese language, namely, you have learned the syllabary alphabet called Hiragana, and you can distinguish and read all its basic characters.

So, let's begin. Naturally, the characters of the Hiragana alphabet do not exist on their own. When combined they form words. Let's learn to read them correctly.

(Tip: You can periodically return to this lesson until you are 100% sure that you are reading correctly and remember all the rules of Japanese pronunciation)

1) Reduction of sounds [and] and [y]

If the sounds [i] and [u] in Japanese are located between 2 voiceless consonant sounds (for example, [k], [s], [p], [t]), then they are reduced, that is, they are partially not pronounced :

ひと → reads “hto” (and NOT hito!), the sound [and] is partially reduced / translation of the word: “man” した → reads “sta” (and NOT sita!) (the sound “s” should be pronounced closer to “shch” , while the sound itself should be pronounced briefly. In the first lesson, we explained in detail the features of the pronunciation of Hiragana sounds); the sound [and] is partially reduced / translation of the word: “bottom, below” ふとい → read “ftoy” (and NOT futoy!), the sound [u] is partially reduced (drops out) / “thick” あした → read “ashta”, sound [ and] is partially reduced / translation of the word: “tomorrow” ふた → reads “fta”, the sound [u] is partially reduced / translation of the word: “lid” よろしく → reads “eroshchku”, sound [and] is partially reduced / translation: “hello”です → read “des”, the sound [u] at the end is partially reduced / translation: verb link “is, to be”

Acquaintance

When interlocutors first get to know each other, they usually first talk about themselves and express hope for mutual support. In Japanese this is called 自己紹介 - "jikosho kai", which can literally be translated as "self-presentation". A sort of self-presentation. an established pattern in Japanese society .

It should be noted that the Japanese language has several levels of politeness . Here, with the exception of some points, phrases of two levels will be presented. Polite/Formal - Suitable for all occasions. It is universal , at least in the initial stages. Informal is the level of politeness of speech among friends, close colleagues, and the like. Be careful in choosing your phrase - the wrong level of politeness will alienate a person or even offend him.

A small note: in transcription, the colon after a vowel indicates its length.

So, the first phrase in your story about yourself is 初めまして (はじめまして）. It reads “hajimemashite” and translates as “nice to meet you.”

Then you say your name. Here are several options:

After the greeting, you need to tell about yourself. The Japanese usually perceive people based on their belonging to a place - a place of study, a place of work. This is as important as your name. There is usually only one pattern here - type of activity. Here are a few examples:

Naturally, if you already know how, you can use the genitive suffix の to add the name of the school or university where you study, or the company or institution where you work.

The “self-introduction” ends with a template phrase in which the speaker expresses the hope that the acquaintance will be pleasant and strong. There are several options here too:

Let's see what happened in the end. This is the basic pattern for almost all cases , since it is polite enough:

初めまして。私はnameと言います。 occupationです。よろしくお願いします。

name といいます。occupation です。よろしくおねがいします。

Hajimemashite. Watashi wa name is iimas. occupation of des. Yoroshiku onegai shimas.

Nice to meet you. My name is name . I am an occupation . I count on your kindness.

The template can be changed at your discretion. Before the final phrase, information about your specialty, age, and hobby fits well. This will make your story about yourself more complete. However, if you are just starting to learn the basics of the Japanese language, the above phrases will be enough for you.

2) Pronunciation [n] ん

The pronunciation of ん varies depending on what sound follows it.

a)
Before the syllables of the series ま、ば、ぱ is pronounced like [m]!!!
うんめい → ummei / “fate” (after ん there is a symbol め from the series ～ま (ま、み、む、め、も)) まんまんな → mammanna / “full of something” ～んぱ → mpa

b) In all other cases as [n]:

せんろ → senro / “rails” みんな → minna / “all”

c) Takes on a slightly nasal [ŋ] sound before syllables が、か てんき → tenki / “weather” けんがく → kengaku / “study of something”

Parting

It's time to part ways. It would be a good idea to end the dialogue in such a way that your interlocutor would be pleased to meet you again. And how to do it? Now let's teach!

So we have a kind of “Japanese phrasebook” of basic phrases in Japanese. Now you know how to properly introduce yourself, say hello and goodbye, thank and apologize. However, perhaps you'll be traveling to Japan soon and need tourist expressions ? We recommend watching our video about useful phrases for traveling to Japan. You will learn how to say that you are lost, ask how much this or that thing costs, and find out where this or that place is.

Well, our article has come to an end. Of course, there are many more similar phrases, but you will become familiar with them as you learn Japanese. Well, this is the basic minimum! We wish you success!

basic phrases in Japanese with transcription in this article. Greeting, gratitude, apology and farewell in Japanese.

Source

3) Formation of voiced and voiceless consonants

[゛] – nigori. It is added to signs with a voiceless consonant sound, converting it into a voiced sound.

[゜] – maru.
Forms signs with the consonant [n].
Maru is placed only at the は row. These signs are placed above the main symbol. か → が ga き → ぎ gi く → ぐ gu け → げ ge こ → ご go

さ → ざ za し → じ ji (with buzzing) す → ず zu せ → ぜ ze そ → ぞ zo

た → だ da ち → ぢ ji (with buzzing) つ → づ zu て → で de と → ど do

は → ば ba ひ → び bi ふ → ぶ bu へ → べ be ほ → ぼ bo

は → ぱ pa ひ → ぴ pi ふ → ぷ pu へ → ぺ pe ほ → ぽ po

Japanese for beginners. Lesson 0.1

Hello everyone, I decided to write an article on learning the Japanese language.
I myself don’t know Japanese perfectly, but in order to talk about the initial level, my knowledge is enough. I decided the lessons will be structured like this, the first five will be introductory, in them I will tell you about the alphabet and how to correctly pronounce certain combinations. Of course, I will try to explain everything clearly, and I will make the blog as light and entertaining as possible so that you don’t get bored. And also, I’ll forget about my other blog. Prefaces

In Japanese, there are three alphabets: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Hiragana is used to write Japanese words, suffixes and cases. Katakana is needed to write foreign words. Kanji is an alphabet consisting of hieroglyphs, since the Japanese did not have their own written language, they borrowed hieroglyphs from China. Each character has two readings, Onyomi and Kunyomi. Kun'yomi is a Japanese reading and On'yomi is a Chinese reading that was borrowed from China but was modified to suit Japanese vocabulary. Basically, Kun'yomi is used to read one character, and On'yomi is used to read this character in combination with other characters, but there are exceptions. If you don’t understand anything, don’t worry; when we get to practice, everything will become clear to everyone.

Lesson 0.1

In Japanese there is no such thing as stress, but there is such a thing as tones. Tones are the melodic pattern of the voice, which is characterized by changes in pitch. There are three tones in the Japanese language. 1) Raised tone is when, when pronouncing a word, the first syllable is pronounced in a low tone, the rest in a high tone. 2) Low tone - this is when, when pronouncing a word, the first syllable is pronounced in a high tone, the rest - in a low tone, gradually lowering the tone until the end of the word. 3) Increased-Decreased tone - this is when, when pronouncing a word, first the tone goes up, and then down. The same word, pronounced with a raised tone or a lowered tone, can have a meaningful role. Vowels and consonants in Japanese can be either long or short. Longitude is determined by the presence of the same letter, for example, KOKO and KOKOO. Longitude and brevity have a distinctive meaning.

Pronunciation

The vowels A, I, E, O- are pronounced the same as in the Russian language, U- is pronounced something between U and Y, when pronouncing the main thing is not to pull your lips forward, but to stretch them slightly. The syllables KA, KI, KU, KE, K0 are pronounced the same way as in Russian. If you see these two commas above the hieroglyphs KA, KI, KU, KE, KO (by the way, they are called Nigori), then the hieroglyphs will be read as GA, GI, GU, GE, GO, respectively, their pronunciation will be the same as in Russian.

Vowel length

The longitude of the vowel A is usually indicated by the second letter A, for example ああ or かあ, longitude I by the second letter I for example: いいor きい, longitude U by the second letter U for example: ううor くう, longitude E by the second letter E for example: ええorけえ, or in modern Japanese longitude E is also written as a combination of EI for example: えい or けい, but sometimes it is read as HEY for example some Japanese say GAKUSEI, and some GAKUSEE, but don’t be afraid, in the future I will explain with an example how to say this or that correctly word, just remember that there are such rules, as well as the vowel O, which can be lengthened either by the letter U or O for example: おうor こうor おおor こお

Hiragana

To remember the first hiragana characters for this course, I suggest using the mnemonic method. Mnemonics are ways to remember information by changing the type of information. If you do not understand what this method is, now I will clearly explain it. To remember hieroglyphs better, you need to imagine what they are more like, and so that this corresponds to their translation. Well, let's begin.

A

It’s true that the hieroglyph “ A”

“This part is similar to the Russian letter “
A
”, so this hieroglyph will be remembered as “
A
”.

AND

If you add a small element to this hieroglyph, it will look like the letter “ I”

", this hieroglyph is read as "
And
"

U

This Hiragana is similar to the inner part of the U

ha, but it reads like “
U
”

E

This hieroglyph " E"

" can be remembered as
an
exotic bird, or l
Ebed
(I know that swan is written with an e, but it will be easier to remember).

ABOUT

Hiragana " O"

“looks like fat Pudge, who gobbled up his next opponent and says: “
Oh
, I’m so full,” while throwing his half-eaten leg to the side.

CA

CA

Rater used a kitchen meat ax to cut off his enemy's hand.
This hieroglyph reads " KA
"

CI

This character is similar to a weapon from Kingdom Hearts called Ki

ngdom key or it is also similar to the key, which in English sounds like “
KI
”. This is how you can remember that this hieroglyph sounds like KI

KU

Here you can simply remember that KU

Ritsa screams that she wants
crazy
.

CE

I memorized this hieroglyph as KE

look.

KO

And the hieroglyph " KO

“looks like
KO
Leso, that’s how we’ll remember it.

New words

In this section, I will give new words that need to be learned and will be useful to us in the future. I will also use mnemonics. You don't have to use my associations, you can come up with your own. I apologize for my drawings, I'm not an artist.

いえ-house

When moving, the wife says to her husband: “ And E

is that our house? Some kind of wreck, not a love nest.”

いいえ-no

At the quiz, the player chose one from three gifts, not knowing what was inside, crossing his fingers, he repeated: “At least a car, at least a car,” the presenter drew intrigue “ III E

then the zucchini, unfortunately,
no
it’s not a car.” Please note that the difference between home and the word “No” is the presence of a double letter “and”

え-picture

E

Duard looked at
the picture
, not understanding what was drawn on it.

ええ-yes

The equipment salesman asked the buyer: “Do you want to buy a case for your phone?” the buyer thought for a moment and said: “ Eee, yes.”

»

えいが-movie

The guy saw his friend in the cinema and shouted: “ HEY GA

la, you also decided to watch this
movie
"

えいご-English

A schoolboy shouts to his friend: " HEY GO"

learn
English
."

かご-basket

Unlucky spacecraft

The captain of the ship stepped
naked
into a trash
can
and got stuck there.

き-tree

CI

Thai
wood
has already stood for more than 500 years, unlike their product, which breaks after five minutes.

こ-child

You can remember how a child
KO
rubs his nose.

こえ-voice

Our CO

PS strange voice, instead of saying “B
EEE
” for some reason she says “
EEE
”

Conclusion

I want to thank everyone in advance, if you liked it, write in the comments should I do video lessons and should I draw? This was an introductory lesson, there will be four more of these, and then there will be grammar. Thank you all for your attention!

Japanese

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4) Combinations with や、ゆ、よ

The formation of a new syllable with these vowel sounds occurs in Japanese as follows: Base syllable of the form [sogl + い] + smaller ゃ、ょ、ゅ = New syllable

For example,
き(ki) + ゃ(я) = new syllable きゃ (kya) in the voiced version: ぎ(gi) + ゃ(я) = new syllable ぎゃ (gya)きゃ
kya → ぎゃ gya きゅ kyu → ぎゅ gyu きょ kyo → ぎょ gyo

しゃ xia (shcha) → じゃ jia しゅ shu (schu) → じゅ ju しょ sho (shche) → じょ jo

ちゃ cha (with [h]) → ぢゃ jia ちゅ chu (with [h]) → ぢゅ ju ちょ cho (with [h]) → ぢょ jo

ひゃ hya → びゃ bya ひゅ hyu → びゅ byu ひょ hyo → びょ byo Try to write the rows with み、に、ぴ yourself in the same way

The pronunciation of the entire syllable and the meaning of the entire word depend on the value of や、ゆ、よ!!!

ひやく→ read “hiyaku” / “jump”: The sign [や] is read independently as a separate syllable. ひゃく→ read “hyaku” / “jump”: The sign [ゃ] is not read independently, it is part of a new syllable

びょういん → reads “byo:in” / “hospital” (about long sounds in the next paragraph) びよういん → reads “biyo:in” / “beauty salon”

じゆう → read “jiu:” / “freedom” じゅう → read “ju:” / “ten”

Greetings

Where would we be without the same “hello”? Any conversation begins with a greeting; the right phrase prepares the interlocutor for dialogue and attracts him to you.

several etiquette phrases follow . The interlocutors show attention to each other’s affairs, thereby expressing participation.

For example, if you haven’t seen your friend for a long time, you can continue the conversation with the phrase お久しぶりです。（おひさしぶりです。） - “ohisashiburi des”, “long time no see”.

Then it is customary to inquire about how things are going with the interlocutor:

Do not forget that you, in turn, should also ask the interlocutor about his affairs, if the question was asked to you.

Then the dialogue runs its course, and you can conduct the conversation at your own discretion.

5) Longitude of sounds

a) Sounds [o] and [u]

are lengthened by the sign [う],
while [う] is not read separately, but only “pulls” the previous sound (increasing the duration of the sound).
The “long” sound sounds twice as long as usual. On our website, we will denote the longitude of a sound with a colon during transcription! Be careful in future reading lessons.

そう → so: / so くうこう → ku:ko: / airport こうこう → ko:ko: / high school しんよう → shinyo: / trust りょこう → ryōko: / travel りゆう→ ryu: / reason Exceptions are words , where [o] is lengthened by the sign お: おおきい → o:ky / big とお → to: / ten とおい → to:y / distant

b) Sounds [a], [i], [e]

are lengthened by signs with the same sound [あ], [い], [え] respectively ちいさい → ti:sai / small いいえ → i:e / no ええ → e: / yes ねえ → ne: / so, listen

c) Sound [e]

can also be lengthened with the sign [い]: せんせい → sensee: / teacher せいと → se:to / student けいたい → ke:tai / abbr. mobile phone

Simple words in Japanese

If you've ever wondered how to say the word "Japan" in Japanese, then this collection is for you. It will allow you to become familiar with basic Japanese words and remember their transcription and translation. When reading Japanese words in Russian, keep in mind: “:” denotes a long sound, and the vowels [u] and [i] in the syllables “ku”, “ki” and “su”, “si” are reduced.

Of course, these are not all the Japanese words that beginners may need, but if you are just starting to learn Japanese, then this list may come in handy.

6) Doubling voiceless consonants

The small sign [っ] doubles the consonant sound that follows it: ちょっと → te tt

o (more correctly through a light “ch”: chetto) / a little, a little きって → ki
tt
e / postage stamp きっぷ → ki
pp
u / ticket つっこむ → tsu
kk
omu / immerse yourself, delve into We recommend moving on to the next lesson and practicing everything reading rules.

Learn Japanese on your own with us! Test and consolidate your knowledge on our resource! If you liked this Lesson, share it with your friends or save it to your wall

^^

Phrases away

If you need to receive guests at your place or visit another person’s house, then, naturally, you also cannot do without etiquette phrases. for the Japanese to come to visit empty-handed , so phrases appropriate to the occasion are also included in the table.

Additional katakana sounds

「ふ」 is the only syllable with an “f” sound: 「ふとん」 (futon) or 「ふじ」 (Fuji). And this is normal in Japanese, which has no other “f” words with syllables like “fa,” “fi,” or “fo.” This became a problem when borrowing foreign words like “fork”.

The problem was solved by using reduced vowel symbols. Thus, a small 「ォ」 attached to 「フ」 gives 「フォ」 (“fo”). Therefore, "fork" is written as ［フォーク」. Other gaps were also closed in this way. "v" sounds are also expressed in writing by adding two strokes to the vowel 「ウ」, but are rarely used due to the difficulty of pronunciation for native Japanese speakers.

Gaps in Katakana that are so filled:
Additional sounds

• ソファ (so-fa) - sofa
• ウィンドウズ (win-do-u-zu) - Windows (as in MS Windows)
• ウォッカ (vok-ka) - vodka
• チェック (chek-ku) - control (from English check)

Syllables with 「や」、「ゆ」 and 「よ」

Diminished 「や」、「ゆ」 and 「よ」 with the symbols “consonant+i” form the following syllables:
All combinations with reduced や、ゆ and よ in hiragana - pronunciation by click

All combinations with reduced や、ゆ and よ in katakana - pronunciation by click

Visual difference between hiragana and katakana

Example from lesson 1.

わwaたtaしshiはwa デdeザzaイiナnaーa でdeすsu。– I (am) a designer.

わwaたtaしshi, はwa, でdeすsu – Hiragana

デdeザzaイiナnaーa – Katakana

In the Japanese language you can often find the Latin letter - ROMAJI. It is usually used to denote abbreviations of various foreign names.

Example from lesson 2 exercise 4.4:

銀gin行kouにni ATM がgaあaりriまmaすsu。– There is an ATM in the bank. ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) is an ATM in English. In Japanese, this abbreviation is also used very often, along with other borrowings.

The Japanese language has hieroglyphs and two alphabets. It is incorrect to call Hiragana and Katakana characters hieroglyphs.

Example:

父chichi はwa エeンnジjiニniアa でdeすsu – My father is an engineer.

父chichi – hieroglyph

はwa – hiragana

エeンnジjiニniアa – katakana

でdeすsu – hiragana

The reading 父chichi written on top of the character is called furigana

. Usually hieroglyphs are signed with Hiragana characters, but in our course for beginners we use the Latin alphabet.

Both Hiragana and Katakana consist of 46 characters, combined into a gojuon table. Both alphabets have only 10 main rows. Both Hiragana and Katakana are read and pronounced the same. The only difference is in their spelling and use.