Page 16 - Japanese Character Writing for Dummies

Table 1-4 Small ya, yu, yo
きゃ kya きゅ kyu きょ kyo
(kyah) (kyoo) (kyoh)
しゃ sha しゅ shu しょ sho
(shah) (shoo) (shoh)
ちゃ cha ちゅ chu ちょ cho
(chah) (choo) (choh)
にゃ nya にゅ nyu にょ nyo
(nyah) (nyoo) (nyoh)
ひゃ hya ひゅ hyu ひょ hyo
(hyah) (hyoo) (hyoh)
みゃ mya みゅ myu みょ myo
(myah) (myoo) (myoh)
りゃ rya りゅ ryu りょ ryo
(ryah) (ryoo) (ryoh)
ぎゃ gya ぎゅ gyu ぎょ gyo
(gyah) (gyoo) (gyoh)
じゃ ja じゅ ju じょ jo
(jah) (joo) (joh)
ぢゃ ja ぢゅ ju ぢょ jo
(jah) (joo) (joh)
びゃ bya びゅ byu びょ byo

(byah) (byoo) (byoh)
ぴゃ pya ぴゅ pyu ぴょ pyo

(pyah) (pyoo) (pyoh)

When you speak, it’s important to make a clear distinction between small ya, yu, and yo and regular
ya, yu, and yo. For example, byōin refers to a hospital, but biyōin refers to a beauty salon. When you
want to go to a hospital, you might arrive at a beauty salon if you don’t carefully pronounce the
word!

Small tsu

In Japanese, double consonants such as tt or pp are written with small つ tsu and indicated by a
brief pause. You don’t really pronounce a sound. For example, the kanji for “eight hundred” is 八
百 happyaku.

When to Use Kanji

As I mentioned, there are two other writing scripts in Japanese, hiragana and katakana. These
scripts seem simpler and can transcribe any sound into Japanese. You may therefore have this
burning question: Why do we need a complicated writing script like kanji?

10 Japanese Character Writing For Dummies