Page 11 - Easy Japanese - Learn to Speak Japanese Quickly! (TUTTLE)

a like the “a” in dark asa “morning”
i like the “i” in pit, slightly inu “dog”
longer

u like the “u” in pull ureshī “happy”
e like the “é” in café Eigo “English”

o like the “o” in bowl oishī “delicious”

Long Vowels
There are five long vowels in Japanese: aa, ii, uu, ee, and oo. They are “long” in

terms of spoken duration, e.g., “aa” is twice as long as “a”.
aa long “aa” written as ā, pronounced like rāmen “ramen”
“Ah!”

ii long “ii” written as ī, like the “ee” in bīru “beer”
keep
uu long “uu” written as ū, like the “oo” in kyū “nine”

coop
ee long “ee” written as ē, like the “ere” in mēru “email, text”
where

oo long “oo” written as ō, like the “ow” in dō “how”
bowl

The Japanese Consonants

Most consonants are pronounced similar to English.
b like the “b” in book ban gohan “dinner”

ch like the “ch” in chocolate chotto “a little”
d like the “d” in day denwa “phone”

f like the “f” in food fuyu “winter”
g like the “g” in gift gohan “rice”

h like the “h” in hope ha “leaf”
j like the “j” in jog jikan “hour”

k like the “k” in king kitte “stamps”
m like the “m” in mat miseru “to show”

n like the “n” in nut, natsu “summer”
at the end of the word, closer to “ng” as in ringo “apple”