Hiragana Pronunciation Guide Japanese Alphabet Japanese Pronunciation Series

みなさんこんにちは。Hello everyone. I'm Fumi from Speak Japanese Naturally. Today, we are working on Japanese pronunciation. So many people study Japanese for years, but without paying attention to pronunciation, their Japanese sounds less natural than it could. With just a few small adjustments, you can sound much more natural. That's why I started this series alongside my usual walk and talk videos. The earlier you learn it, the better. If you wait until later, you'll always be wondering, am I saying this right? But with the right knowledge, you'll be able to move forward with confidence. The key is simple. Practice and feedback. Practice a lot and record yourself and listen back and compare. And if you'd like direct feedback, you can join my subscription course. If you join the standard or premium plan, I'll personally check your pronunciation and give you clear guidance on how to improve. Today, we'll start with the basics. The IUL table. In future videos, I'll cover these sounds, small つ, ん, pitch accent, intonation, and more. So please like and subscribe and stay tuned. Your task today is to record yourself reading this hiragana table. So please listen carefully. These are hiragana. Hiragana are phonetic characters. And basically, each character is pronounced as it is written. For example, this is あ. Whenever you see this character, you read it as あ. On the other hand, in English, the letter A can be pronounced in many ways, like a, e, and so on. But in Japanese, this character, あ, is always pronounced as あ. There are a few exceptions, like with う and お. But in general, each character has one fixed sound that doesn't change. In other words, once you learn the sounds in this table, you'll know all the Japanese basic sounds. This table is called 五十音図. 五十 means 50. There aren't actually 50 sounds now, but you can see where the name comes from. Five rows and ten columns, right? 音 means sound, and each character represents a sound. The characters shown in grey aren't used anymore. You're looking at the table in hiragana, but the sounds are the same in katakana, too. Let me explain how this table is laid out. It's usually written vertically, from top to bottom, right to left. The rows represent the vowel groups. All the characters in this row end with the vowel あ. あかさたな はまやらわ Right? う is an exception. The next row ends in い. The same goes for うえ and お. The columns show the consonant groups. This first column is the vowel group. The column next to it is the か group. Aside from the pure vowels, Japanese sounds are usually a combination of a consonant and a vowel. So these characters each contain a consonant and a vowel sound, except for う, which has no vowel. Now let's look at how to pronounce these sounds one by one. For pronunciation, the shape of your mouth is key. So please pause the video here, grab a handheld mirror, and try to match the shape of your mouth. Okay, ready? Let's begin. This is あ. When you say あ, open your mouth wide. It's the widest of all the vowels. In English, vowels are often unclear. But in Japanese, you have to pronounce vowels clearly. Please repeat after me. When you say い, stretch your mouth sideways. Please repeat after me. Be especially careful with う. When you say う, your lips aren't very rounded. You don't need to pout. It's not う, but with relaxed lips. Check your lips. Many people say it like う, with pouting lips. Try to avoid that. Please repeat after me. For え, your mouth shape is somewhere between あ and い. Make sure not to add い at the end when you say え. It's not え, but Please repeat after me. When you say お, your lips should be round. Some people pronounce お like お, like the English alphabet O, with the little う sound at the end. But that makes it harder to understand. So please be careful. It's not お, but Please repeat after me. Now let's move on to the か group. They're not difficult. It's the same sound as the English く sound. Please repeat after me. Didn't you say it like Whenever a vowel appears, which is always, please be careful not to add any extra sounds. Let's try again. Please repeat after me. Next, さ group. They're not difficult either. Their consonant is っ except for し. し is shi in romaji and it sounds similar to the English し, but it's different. You spread your mouth sideways more from the beginning. You make the mouth of い first, then say し. The shape of my mouth is the same, right? Please repeat after me. Please be careful of the vowels. Next, たちつてと. First of all, don't aspirate too much when you say たちつてと. So it's not like たちつて but it's たちつてと. And the placement of your tongue is a bit forward compared to the English っ sound. Your tongue touches the back of your front teeth. The consonants of ち and つ are different from たてと. The sound of ち is close to the sound in cheese. But again, you spread your mouth sideways more. Make the mouth of い first, then say ち. Just like we practiced for し. You see, my mouth doesn't move. So this shape is the same as the shape of し and the only difference is that your tongue touches the roof of your mouth when you say ち. This is your mouth. Actually, when you say いろ, your mouth shape remains the same except for み because you need to close your lips once to make the sound of ん. I'll read the いろ, so please look at my mouth. いきしちに ひみいりい Right? So the shape of your mouth is key. This is つ, and when you say つ, make the mouth of う first, then say つ. Or you can say す first, then move your tongue to touch the roof of your mouth. I'll read the うろ again, and you'll see that mouth shape won't change. うくすつぬ ふむゆるう We'll practice reading the seibo horizontally later in this video. For now, please repeat after me. し ち し ち す た ち つ て と た ち つ て と Next, なにぬねの. The consonant is the same as the English ん sound, except for に. に is a little bit different. It's not に, but に. に The placement of your tongue is like this, and this one is that of なぬねの. So when you say に, not only the tip of your tongue, but the wider part of your tongue is placed on the roof of your mouth. に Please repeat after me. に Now please be careful with vowels, and repeat after me. なにぬねの Next, はひふへほ. When you say ひ, there's a hissing sound. ひ ふ is written as fu in ろうまじ, but it's not the ふ sound at all. Don't make this ふ fricative sound. It's ふ. It's like blowing a candle very gently. Please be careful not to pout like this. ふ It's ふ. Now please repeat after me. ひ フ フ ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ Next, マ ミ ム メ モ These are easy, right? Please repeat after me. マ ミ ム メ モ Please be careful with the vowels. マ ミ ム メ モ Next, ヤ ユ ヨ I don't think they have too many problems either. Please repeat after me. ヤ ユ ヨ Next, ラ リ ル レ ロ Japanese ラリルレロ is written using the letter R. But Japanese R doesn't sound like the English R at all. When you pronounce the English R, your tongue doesn't touch anything. But it does in ラ. So in a way, L is more like the Japanese sound. But the placement of your tongue is a little further back on your palate. It doesn't touch the back of your front teeth. And your tongue touches the roof of your mouth for a very short time. Much, much shorter than L. To learn how to move your tongue, let's practice saying ラリルレロ with your mouth open. Make the mouth shape of ア and say ラララララ. Please don't move your jaw. Just move your tongue. That's how you make ラリルレロ sounds. Please repeat after me. ラララララ リリリリリ ルルルルル レレレレレ ロロロロロ ラララララ リリリリリ ルルルルル レレレレレ ロロロロロ Another tip is to imitate the sound when you say water in American English. In American English, this T in water is pronounced as this. And this symbol is used for the Japanese ラリルレロ sound. Water ラ ラリルレロ Actually, sometimes when English speakers say デス, it sounds like デス. In that case, they're not moving their jaw. They're just moving their tongue. So that's actually the key. Move only your tongue. Please repeat after me. ラリルレロ Of course, be careful with the vowels too. ラリルレロ Now, the last ones. ワオン When you say ワ, you say ウ and ア. And please remember, when you say ウ, you don't pout. So it's the same as for ワ too. So it's not ワ but ワ. Please repeat after me. ワ オ is written as デス but the pronunciation is same as デス. There's no difference. But you might hear people say ワ especially in songs and it happens. And either is fine actually. But please be careful not to say it as ワ with pouting. It's ウ and ワ so it's ワ ワ. And the very last one. ン It's a nasal sound and actually ン has many sounds. For example, when you say テンプラ, it's ン sound. When you say トンカツ, it's a different sound. But when you say ン only by itself or when ン is the last letter of the word. It's ン Your tongue doesn't touch anywhere. And your mouth isn't closed. Let's practice this sound. Please repeat after me. ン We'll learn about it later in this series. Now I'll read all of them. First, vertically. Then horizontally. I'd like to shadow along with me. First, I'll read slowly. After that, I'll read at normal speed. ア イ ウ エ オ カ キ ク ケ コ サ シ ス セ ソ タ チ ツ テ ト ナ ニ ヌ ネ ノ ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ マ ミ ム メ モ ヤ ユ ヨ ラ リ ル レ ロ ワ オ ン ア イ ウ エ オ カ キ ク ケ コ サ シ ス セ ソ タ チ ツ テ ト ナ ニ ヌ ネ ノ ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ マ ミ ム メ モ ヤ ユ ヨ ラ リ ル レ ロ ワ オ ン ア カ サ タ ナ ハ マ ヤ ラ ワ イ キ シ チ ニ ヒ ミ リ ウ ク ス ツ ヌ フ ム ユ ル エ ケ セ テ ネ ヘ メ レ オ コ ソ ト ノ ホ モ ヨ ロ オ ア カ サ タ ナ ハ マ ヤ ラ ワ イ キ シ チ ニ ヒ ミ リ ウ ク ス ツ ヌ フ ム ユ ル エ ケ セ テ ネ ヘ メ レ オ コ ソ ト ノ ホ モ ヨ ロ オ It's been a long lesson, but we're finally at the last part. Now please read the table vertically and horizontally and record the best version and listen to it. What we covered today was just the very basics, but pronunciation is one of the most important parts of learning Japanese. Without it, no matter how much grammar or vocabulary you know, your Japanese won't sound as natural as it could. In my subscription course, you can go much deeper into pronunciation, rhythm, pitch accent, and intonation. The challenge is that it's really hard to improve pronunciation on your own because you don't always notice your own mistakes. That's why feedback is so important. If you join the standard or premium plan, I'll check your pronunciation and give you feedback. If you're serious about sounding natural in Japanese, I'd love to support you there. I hope to see you in the course. 一緒に頑張りましょう!