I checked in google translate but I wanted to be sure. Is 思う pronounced as "omou" or "omoo"? Usually when there is a お (or こ、ど etc), followed by a う, the う is pronounced as お, but I was not sure if that was the case with verbs as well.
asked Apr 11, 2016 at 17:16
-
1Related: Questions about 背負う.– istrasciApr 11, 2016 at 17:22
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
It is "omou" not "omoo" at least I've actually heard it pronounced this way.
- In 1 word "oo" or "ou" both are long "o".
- In two words put together, you have to know how they are pronounced seperatly and it doesn't really change. If you have a verb ending in ou then the final u will be "u" not "o".
When I have doubts about the pronunciation of a word I rather use this site because Google is not too reliable ...
-
Thanks! That's what I thought. Thanks for the useful site too! Apr 11, 2016 at 21:59
思う is pronounced "omou" with a distinct "u" sound rather than a long "o" because there is a morpheme barrier between the "o" and the "u."
answered Apr 11, 2016 at 21:10
-
-
-
2@oals That's not what it is. If you don't know what a morpheme is, you can always look it up on Wikipedia, but it would be easier to put into context with some experience in linguistics. Apr 12, 2016 at 8:58
-
isn't there always a syllable boundary between う and anything else, since う is a syllable? (or is it?) Apr 12, 2016 at 14:57
-
2"Morpheme boundary" here refers to the way that the う on the end belongs to a different grammatical portion of the word -- this う is the verb ending, and it changes when the verb conjugates. The う in そう (as in そうです) or in ふつう (as in 普通) does not change at all, and is part of the same grammatical functional unit as the preceding mora -- so the う takes on the phonetic value of the preceding mora: becoming
/o/in そう, and staying as/u/in 普{ふ}通{つう}. Similarly, the final い in -しい adjectives (like うつくしい or ほしい or まぶしい) is morphemically separate, and is thus spelled separate in romaji. Apr 12, 2016 at 16:52