Page 12 - Easy Japanese - Learn to Speak Japanese Quickly! (TUTTLE)
P. 12
thing
p like the “p” in pet purezento “present”
r like “r” in car (not rolled) between the English raigetsu “next month”
“r”, “l” and “d”,
s like the “s” in soot suru “to do”
sh like the “sh” in shook shoku-gyō “profession”
t like the “t” in tip tenki “weather”
ts like the “ts” in hits tsuma “wife”
w like the “w” in watt watashitachi “we”
y like the “y” in you yon “four”
z like the “z” in zoo zutsū “headache”
Long Consonants
The consonants t, s, k, and p can also be long. They should be pronounced like
so:
kk like “kk” in “bookkeeper” yukkuri “slowly”
tt like “tt” in “flat-top” wakatta “I understand”
pp like “pp” in “top- ippai “to be full”
performing”
ss like “ss” in zasshi “magazine”
“misstatement”
When these consonants constitute an entire syllable without a vowel, they are
not pronounced but take a full syllable length.
three syllables: ki-t-te “stamps”
four syllables: ma-s-su-gu “straight”
five syllables: sho-p-pi-n-gu “shopping”
The consonant n can also take up an entire syllable by itself, as in sho-p-pi-N-gu
above. In this book, n with an apostrophe—n’—is used where there is a need to
distinguish a syllabic n. Compare the following:
kinen “commemoration” three ki-ne-N
syllables
kin’en “no smoking” four ki-N -e-N
