Fourth Lesson: Other Sounds

Hello again!

It seems that we have studied everything about the alphabets but there are few things left to know:

Little つ: You may have seen that sometimes a "tsu" is smaller than other letters in the Japanese Word (for example in the expression of the image at the top) this little "tsu" is indicating that you must reinforce the next consonant sound. For example: がんばって this little tsu indicates that you must do a bigger sound for the TE syllable so your pronounciation must be "GANBATTE".

Combination えい: This is very simple DO NOT pronounce the I, instead pronounce a long E. For example the word teacher: せんせい this word should be pronounced "SENSEE".

Combination おう: This is also simple DO NOT pronounce the U, instead pronounce a long O. For example the word today: きょうthis word should be pronounced "KYOO".

Long vowels: Some words in Japanese require to pronounce the vowel as if it was repeated or as it was long long long... It is not hard just make it long! This elongation can be written with the vowel or with " - ". For example the word notebook: ノート which should be pronounced "NOOTO".

"し": This syllable is pronounced SHI almost always. The exception is when it is accompanied with the syllable TE, in that case the I does not sound, so all you end up saying is SH like when you are trying to ask for silence. For example in the word "nice to meet you" (yes... all that is just a word) はじめましてit must be pronounced "HAJIMEMASHTE"

ようおん: This kind of sounds are the combination of two sounds we alredy know, it is similar to the contraction of is not (isn't) in English or the contraction of para (pa') in Spanish. This is the chart and a video of course.

And Finally! All you must know about sounds and alphabets in Japanese is done!!!