Questions tagged [pronunciation]
発音. How the Japanese language is pronounced. For questions about which readings to use for particular kanji, use the "readings" tag instead.
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Is there some rule for when one should pronounce 'te' as 'ta' in a song?
At 0:37 in the OP of the anime Gotoubun no Hanayome, Miku pronounces her lyrics 'kizuite' as 'kizuita'. I wonder if there's some singing rule for when this should be done.
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Correct pronunciation for 「シドニー支社に」
I heard two different pronunciations for「シドニー支社に」
A: shidoni issha ni (しどに いっしゃ に)
B: shidonii shisha ni (しどにい ししゃ に)
Which one is correct?
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Do you pronounce the "い" sound in yakisoba [やきそば]?
The dish yakisoba is clearly written as やきそば or 焼きそば. When I hear native speakers speak it, it sounds to me like the "い" sound in "き" is silent. I've heard it pronounced like &...
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Term for "Letter"/Symbol name vs. pronunciation
I was trying to explain to someone why spelling & reading in Japanese (at least with kana) is easy because the name of the letter is its pronuncation. (Yes, I realize kana are not strictly "...
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What's the rule behind the change of the pronunciation of '薬' in '目薬'? [duplicate]
目薬 is pronounced 'めぐすり' while 薬 'くすり'.
The pronunciation of '薬' change from 'くすり' to 'ぐすり'. What's the rule behind this change?
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KAMIOKANDE - Are there any hidden (semantic or phonetic) associations for native speakers?
KAMIOKANDE is a neutrino detector experiment located near Kamioka and stands for "Kamioka Nucleon Decay Experiment".
Now, many scientific facilities but also processes or methods are named ...
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Are there rules for 濁音化？
As far as I know, 濁音化 happens a lot when words are combined together. The following are some examples I know.
三（サン）+ 階（カイ）-> 三階（サンガイ）
一（イチ）+ 匹（ヒキ）-> 一匹（イッピキ）
猫（ネコ）+ 好き（スキ）-> 猫好き（ネコズキ）
興味（...
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Are there any general rules for guessing the pitch accent of 1- or 2- mora nouns in compounds?
I've already looked up here but so far most are only concerned with 3 or 4 mora suffixes or are overly specific. I'm looking for a generic rule I can apply for compound suffixes made up of 1 to 2 ...
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From JSL Part 1, Introduction: Consonant before "i", pronounced with a "y" sound?
After a few years away from study, I was re-reading JSL (Japanese: The Spoken Language) Part 1, Introduction, Pronunciation, and for several consonants, call them X, it suggests pronouncing "Xy&...
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Is す devoiced in おすそわけ?
At 29s of this video, it sounds to me like おすそわけ is being said like oS_SOWAKE instead of oSUSOWAKE.
Both OJAD and Wiktionary don't indicate that there's any devoicing going on with this word though, ...
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おねいちゃん vs おねえちゃん
In this frame from ３月のライオン, Akari, the eldest of the Kawamoto sisters is being referred to as おねいちゃん rather than おねえちゃん.
https://gyazo.com/e039edc3be657a4f1082dd9d152c0ae7
In this separate scene, it ...
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Pronouncing kanji numbers
ホグワーツには一四二もの階段があった。
There were as many as 142 staircases at Hogwarts.
This is probably a daft question but I'd like to be sure.
When you see a number written in kanji like 一四二 do you read it as ...
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Different pronunciations of 等
When 等 comes after a word, how can I know when to pronounce it as など or とう?
According to a colleague of mine, it's usually pronounced とう when read and など when spoken.
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Removing the く when pronouncing 洗濯機(せんたくき)
At 2m34s, the speaker seems to pronounce 洗濯機 not with a devoiced く, but a complete removal of it.
That is, it sounds to me like she's saying せんたき{LHHL} instead of seNTAK_ki.
Question: Is this a ...
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Sometimes its difficult to pronounce the R sound [duplicate]
I've been practicing for months now, I have still have difficulty with r.
For example, when saying something like 忘れられる. Is it supposed to be difficult? Like when I say it fast it sounds really mushy, ...
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Can one pronounce an ん with closed lips (as in がんばろう)?
I know that when pronouncing the Japanese ん:
There should be nasal air flow.
You should not be touching your tongue to the roof of your mouth (i.e. so it's not like the English "n").
Tongue ...
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Reading/Pronunciation of 呼吸 in the song 「デスペレート」"desperate"
My question is how to read these 呼吸 kanji in this line この呼吸も所詮退屈凌ぎ from this song. I looked it up and as far as I found out it should be read こきゅう but in the song all I hear is just いきい. Why is that ...
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Is いう supposed to sound a little like ゆ
when hearing いう, it sounds a little like ゆ, like the う sounds like it said a little y before is. Am I hearing it correct. I feel like is sounds like いyう or something like that
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ですね and ですよ regarding the silent u (silent vowels)
So, I'm not sure how to word it, but I hear majority of people say des-ne and des-yo. But following this: What are the rules regarding "mute vowels" ("u" after "s" and &...
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Pronunciation of 出入り
In the context of people entering and leaving a room how is 出入り(する) pronounced? Is it でいり, ではいり or しゅつにゅう? In what situations would the other readings be used?
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Is dropping u in ですね/ですよ a special case? [duplicate]
So I never though about it, but ですね and ですよ don't follow the silent vowel rules, but I don't think I've ever heard (desu ne) or (desu yo). It's always (des ne) and (des yo). Unless I'm imagining ...
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Hiragana phonetic fusions in Japanese - 学校 example [duplicate]
The word 学校 has two kanji, 学 and 校 that respectively are read がく and こう.
Does this "hiragana fusion" bewteen the last く and the first こ, have a name? I know it occurs in many many other ...
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How does ッ pronounce before b, d, g (バッグ, ベッド)?
For ッ before p, t, k, such as バック, it sounds to be voiceless.
But what happens if it is before b, d, g? This situation rarely occurs in Japanese, but sometimes exists in loanwords. Examples would be ...
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Name pronunciation
Are the following two words (last name "translated" to Japanese for context) pronounced the same?
ミイヨ In this case the second syllable is the katakana equivalent of I.
ミーヨ In this case it ...
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Does it matter if I say g as [g] or [ŋ] [duplicate]
I've seen that seen that the g can be pronounced as ŋ. But I have no idea how to replicate that, all I've seen is the it sounds like the ending of sing, but I still don't really know, so my questions ...
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Is there any reason why I sometimes hear masU and desU?
I don't hear real life japanese that often, (I watch some podcasts and stuff) but when listening to anime, I hear ます and です said very often with the u being fully pronounced. I was wondering, is this ...
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What is the pronunciation difference between ち and ぢ
While several people have asked about the pronunciation difference between じ and ぢ(there is none), the difference between ち and ぢ has not been talked about much. Yet, they seem the same to me, even ...
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Is the japanese あ ever [ɐ] instead of [a]?
So, both those vowels are very similar, the only difference being that [a] is made when the mouth is fully open while [ɐ] is near-open.
Both those sounds exist in my language (Brazilian Portuguese), ...
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Pitch: Why for mom and dad is the 2nd syllable stressed but for aunt and uncle is the 1st syllable stressed?
I notice in the pitch / stress or whatever it's oKAA-san and oTOU-san but then it's Oba-san and Oji-san. Why?
I'm not so familiar with this LH HL thing but I think it's:
お母【LH】, お父【LH】
おじ【HL】, おば【HL】
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ちゃんと帯付きだ！ meaning
This is translated as "in original cover"
Is this a common saying? and how is the kanji combo read?
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Written lyrics different from the song - Listening issue
I just listened to the new Tani Yuuki song 燦々たるや. All the lyrics I found online say:
固く締め過ぎないように
緩んで解けてしまわぬように
心と心の奥の方に
そっと愛の錠をかける行為
However... what I hear is:
固く締め過ぎないように
緩んでを解けてしまるように
心と心の僕の方に
...
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How is 店員 *actually* written and pronounced?
I'm confused about this word. It seems like it is written in kana as 「てんいん」 but when I hear it actually pronounced it sounds more like 「ていん」, as in 「ていんさん」.
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Bobby Fischer & Haruhi Suzumiya - Do you have to say consecutive vowels together?
Eg 'Koizumi'...and generally koi, ai, mai, etc
Bobby Fischer, mentally ill world chess champion and creator of 9LX, calls Junichiro 'Koizumi' mentally ill. The pronunciation of the 'こい' part is split ...
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Is it possible to make a Japanese name from my Chinese name?
my name is 陳銘聲 in Chinese but i'm not sure how to convert that into a Japanese name. I know there are probably a lot of variations. But I'm just interested in the way Japanese names are created.
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重用 - Reading Preference
Reading some 読解 Material I stumbled upon the word 重用. I read it as じゅうよう without much attention, only to notice that the furigana on top read "ちょうよう". Searching a bit on dictionaries I saw ...
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When is 意外 ever read as 頭高?
I have always heard いがい{LHH}, いがいに{LHHH}, いがいと{LHHH}, but NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 seems to list いがい{HLL} too, and the same goes for Wiktionary. I wonder if 意外 is really pronounced that way. What about the ...
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pronunciation ん＋ [s]
For a few weeks I have been studying the pronunciation of ん and all allophones.
there are many allophones, I was able to learn almost all of them. however there is a case where I have problems
ん ＋ [s]
...
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Why doesn't the て form of a verb connect to たい? [duplicate]
According to wikipedia, the て form is the result of sound changes that occurred when the 連用形 proceeded the particle て.
Historical
Contemporary
買いて
買って
打ちて
打って
知りて
知って
遊びて
遊んで
住みて
住んで
死にて
死んで
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Is Duolingo's pronunciation decent or good?
This amateur video complains about Duolingo not having perfect Japanese pronunciation, and dates from 2021. The author of the video goes as far as to recommend that the audio and listening exercises ...
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How to make sense of うand く's Onbin 音便?
From what I have learned, 音便 arose for the sake of easier pronunciation and they are changed from the ます form or 連用形 form.
However, I could not wrap my head around うand く. Why is that く is changed to ...
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Pronunciation of words ending in -ou [duplicate]
If you have a –ou word ending, is it pronounced differently when it's in a verb (競う = きそう), and when it's part of a "long o" like 幻想 = げんそう ?
I think I remember reading that the first one ...
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Is どこ住み ever pronounced どこずみ?
I have been saying どこ住み{ずみ} as in ～さん、どこずみですか？ because I seem to remember the first few times I heard the word used by other people it was pronounced as such. And I haven't had any issues making ...
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Difference in meaning for どういうこと
If you say どういうこと, as ど\ういうこと, when asking a question, I think it just asks for an explanation (possibly followed by a quick rise on that last mora).
But when someone already knows what is going on (...
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まえ sounds like まい?
I've found some audio files (on Jisho for 前, for example) that pronounce まえ just like I'd expect まい to be pronounced. I wasn't expecting that. Is there some rule about this?
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Do ありがとう and ありかどう sound the same when you are whispering?
In my first language (Cantonese), we do not have voiced consonant sounds like Japanese. Therefore I have been struggling with the voiced and voiceless differences in Japanese. I wonder if that ...
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why does "ru" turn into "n" at times?
Since the first time I saw this occurrence I've been wondering how Japanese people conjugate the "ru" into a n" (ex: 邪魔すんな or なにしてんの？)
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When does a comma 、replace a particle?
When a particle is omitted in casual speech, the written representation (to my great surprise) adds a comma. Do these commas actually correspond to any change or pause in the intonation?
テニス、する？
今、何、...
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"Hiatus avoidance" in Japanese?
Is the reading
腕【うで】の良【よ】い医者【いしゃ】
or
腕【うで】の良【い】い医者【いしゃ】?
どんなに腕【うで】の良【よ】い医者【いしゃ】に早【はや】くかかったとしても間【ま】に合【あ】わない
No matter how fast you go to a good doctor, you won't make it.
https://www.fnn.jp/articles/-/...
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I've seen 雄臭い used in some articles and posts but couldn't find the hiragana pronunciation, does anyone what it is?
Based on the kanji and what I gathered I'm assuming it means "smells manly" or "reeks of a man". The thing is I couldn't find any hiragana reading on the kanji and wanted to know ...
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