How to Pronounce Romaji Japanese

Created by Minako134

 

Part One

 

Romaji is basically Japanese words written out with English letters. In fact, “Romaji” is romaji, if you think about it. ^_^ Romaji is often used for Japanese lyrics when people in the US wish to see what the singers are saying. When people from Japan travel to the US, they have to learn how to spell their Japanese name in English; Romaji.

 

First off, I have to say one thing; it is 400 times easier to learn to pronounce Japanese sounds than it is for a foreigner to pronounce English. This is for one simple reason; a Japanese character will always sound the same, no matter what. In English, the letter “A” can be pronounced at least three different ways; in Japanese, “A” is ALWAYS “ah”.

 

Let’s start with the Japanese alphabet.

 

A	I	U	E	O
Ka	Ki	Ku	Ke	Ko
Sa	Shi	Su	Se	So
Ta	Chi	Tsu	Te	To
Na	Ni	Nu	Ne	No
Ha	Hi	Hu	He	Ho
Ma	Mi	Mu	Me	Mo
Ya		Yu		Yo
La	Li	Lu	Le	Lo
Wa				(Wo)
N

 

A first glance at this might have you thinking, “Cool! It’s all organized and straight-forward!!” However, there are some exceptions you may notice, like “Tsu”, “Chi”, and that lone “N” at the end. Except for “N”, all Japanese syllables consist of a vowel, or a consonant followed by a vowel. If you took any Japanese word, you could divide it into the separate syllables like this:

 

“Tomodachi”: à TO - MO - DA - CHI

 

“Sakula”: à SA - KU - LA (not Sa - kurr - uh, mind you)

 

“Tsubasa”: à TSU - BA - SA

 

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The only consonant that has a hiragana by itself is “N”. You will never hear this at the beginning of a word, only in the middle or most often at the end, like this:

 

“Konnichiwa”: à KO - N - NI - CHI - WA

 

“Gomen”: à GO - ME - N

 

“N” is pronounced just how it looks: you close your mouth and sorta ‘hmm’ it. Some people think it sounds like an “M”, too, but it depends who you talk to.

 

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Now let’s get to the meat and potatoes; I said all the syllables sound the same all the time, no matter what? You need to know what that sounds like, huh? I’ll start by teaching how to pronounce the vowels; keep in mind that they never change, no matter what consonant happens to be in front of it.

 

A	I	U	E	O
‘ah’ (don’t show teeth; not ‘aa’ or ‘uh’) All, Are, Auto	‘ee’ (say with your teeth showing; not ‘eh’ or ‘aie’) Piano, Running, Series	‘oo’ (like you’re about to kiss someone; not ‘uh’ or ‘yew’) You, Avenue, True	‘eh’ (don’t show your teeth; not ‘ee’ or ‘uh’) End, Entry, Sketch	‘oh’ (wider than ‘U’, but not as big as ‘A’; not ‘oo’ or ‘ou’ Pro, Own, Only

 

This is the back bone of reading Romaji. With this information, you are invincible!!!!!!…mostly. Anyway, here’s are some examples of how to pronounce vowels:

 

“Shiloi”: à SHI - LO - I     This is pronounced “Shee - Loh - Ee”

 

“Chigau”: à CHI - GA - U   This is pronounced “Chee - Gah - Oo”

 

“Mononoke”: à MO - NO - NO - KE   This is pronounced “Moh - Noh - Noh - Keh”