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 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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When is 大【おお】 and when is 大【だい】?
There was already a discussion here, with examples
Reading of prefix 大
but what about for 大イベント?
I was hoping one could generalize that 大+katakana=【だい】, but at least one word seems to contradict that ...
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How do you pronounce the name 直
In the given audio https://voca.ro/135zSkjYsgDP the girl is saying もう直ちゃん言い方 to 直ちゃん. It is about the 05:49 mark from 聲の形 if you watch it from the Bluray.
If I understand correctly the ちゃん shouldnt ...
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「来夏」Can I use this for a boy's name?
Is it acceptable to use「来夏」as a boy's name? I am currently making a character and am still choosing a name. Can this name be read as らいが? If so, would it make this name more masculine?
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「黄米来夏」 Can this be considered a name?
I am attempting to make a name for a character and decided on these 4 kanji. My question is, can this be considered a name in Japanese, if so, how would it be pronounced?
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Pronunciation of 世論
It seems that 世論 can be pronounced as both よろん and せろん. Are the meanings identical? Is one pronunciation more common than the other?
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Reading of prefix 大
While reading, I'm finding difficult to understand how to read an initial 大, since it can be read だい (大好物), たい (大使館), おお (大蔵省).
When I can find the word on a dictionary it's not a big problem, I can ...
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は is pronounced differently in two words
In こんにちは(hello), it is pronounced like 'wa'. But in おはよう(good morning) its pronounced like 'ha'. Can someone explain the catch here(Please keep in mind that I'm an absolute beginner)?
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Are there any guiding principles for when to use pauses in longer form sentences?
I was watching this video about a few pointers on achieving more natural Japanese speaking, when it approached how to quick pauses in long sentences, something I've NEVER seen even mentioned in any ...
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「ってた」 pronunciation
I don't know if it's just me but this has been bothering me for a while. I sometimes hear ってた pronounced in a way similar to 「っつう」 or 「っつた」 in fast speech. Do some people really pronounce it that way ...
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is the name Vincent in Japanese ヴィンセント or ビンセント? [duplicate]
I've seen different answers and I am relatively new to learning Japanese, I never knew they had V characters, and would spelling vincent like ヴィンセント change the pronunciation or would it still be with ...
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Meaning, origin and "type" of 多き
I have come across 多き being used in combinations such as
恵み多き宝 or 恵み多き地.
I believe the correct reading is おおき. However, I was not able to find an explanation to the differences, e.g. to 多{おお}い.
Does ...
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Don't 不吉, 富士通 sound alike? [closed]
Isn't it an issue that 不吉, 富士通 sound alike? At least for non-Japanese speakers. For Western companies, they would avoid any even slight associations with something negative.
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Why is 学校 pronounced as "gakkou" and not "gakukou"
There's only one onyomi reading for kanji 学 and its "gaku", where did "gatsu" come from?
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Pronunciation of 部屋
This is a question I had for some time: can 部屋 be pronounced as "hea", or it's always pronounced as "heya", with an audible YA sound?
I'm asking this because more often than not I ...
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Are there different ways to pronounce お column (or related sounds) like こ, そ, の, etc?
I have noticed two different pronunciations for お column and related sounds (お, の, を）.
For the first one, お is pronounced like aw as in always, の is like no as in British pronunciation of not (nawt).
...
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What is the difference in sound between 'あん' and 'えん'?
かん vs けん, だん vs でん for example. Sometimes, they sound the same to my ears. How to differentiate them? Or are they pronounced the same?
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How do I read pitch accent notation (alternatively, why does my pitch notation in yomichan and OJAD disagree)?
I've installed this Anki plugin that adds pitch accent info. The author has helpfully provided some guidelines about the notation:
Overline: Indicates "High" pitch
Downfall arrow: usually ...
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Pronouncing Karate as kara-te
Karate is pronounced "kara te" and it can be written 空手 (empty hand) or 唐手 (Chinese hand). 手 is the word for hand and is pronounced "te". Now to the tricky part: 空 means sky/...
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Pronunciation of パンツ
In the latest chapter (100作品目) of この美術部には問題がある！ there’s a wordplay episode based on different meanings of パンツ. One character uses it in the sense of pants (trousers) but another understands it as ...
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Why is 木の下 pronounced このした instead of きのした?
Does this pronunciation follow a rule of some sort?
I couldn't find any answers online about this example specifically.
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How to Pronounce a Kanji When Just Reading it by Itself
I'll elaborate the title with a scenario. If I was, say, in a scenario where I was talking about my favorite kanji, and said "Oh, my favorite kanji is 悪" how do I pronounce 悪 in that ...
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働きづめ or 働きずめ? Where does that suffix come from?
While playing a game, one of the characters said (the text is in English and the voice is in Japanese):
君はずっと働きずめだったから、今日はもう寝な。
My conjecture is that the correct written form is 働きずめ, but is that ...
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"Good day" as "良い一日": Yoi ichi-nichi vs Yoi tsuitachi?
Do Japanese say "Good day" as the conventional way of their greetings (?):
良い一日。(?)
Furthermore, it seems that:
Google pronounced this as
Yoi ichi-nichi.
But the Google translator shows:...
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Is the pronunciation of す /sɨ/ or /sɯ/?
The wiki says on 2 separate occasions that it should be /sɨ/, see the pages for Japanese phonology and Gojyuuon.
However, when the endings such as です・ます are pronounced without the reduction of that ...
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To when, and where, did 合拗音 still have a notable presence in Japan, and are there any dialects, however minor, that still preserve the 合拗音 today?
I found a book published in 1886, which contained an interesting statement pertaining to the realization of the 合拗音:
Natives of Tōkiō and the Northern and Eastern provinces omit the w after k and g ...
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Why is 口説く read as くどく?
There's okurigana at the end but for the kanji 口 used onyomi reading "ku" instead of "kuchi"
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How do you tell the difference between 決行 and 欠航?
So apparently
決行-けっこう (to carry out)
and
欠航-けっこう (cancelled)
are pronounced the same way? Or does one of them have a different pitch accent pattern? At least Google translate pronounced them the same.
...
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Is 宵宮 considered 3 syllables or 4 syllables?
I think everyone can agree that 宵宮(よいみや) has 4 mora. But one side says it has 4 syllables because there are 4 vowels.
The other side says "Yoi" is similar to the かあ in 母さん and thus only have ...
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Why is the volitional form of する - しよう, considering the classical post-む pre-spelling reform form was せう which should net *しょう?
Why is the volitional form of する - しよう, considering the pre-spelling reform but post-む form was せう, which according to sound changes and modern kana orthography should become しょう? Especially ...
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Pronunciation of 800 / 八百
A Japanese textbook labels the pronunciation of 800 / 八百 as はっぴゃく, but elsewhere labels the pronunciation of 5,800 / 五千八百 as ごせんはっびゃく (emphases added). Should the first syllable of 百 be ぴゃ or びゃ ...
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Kanji after gairaigo pronunciation [duplicate]
For instance, in "アカウントにサインイン中です。" How is "中" pronounced?
At a purely mental level, I've always maintained the idea that how you read is up to you, which seems to be backed by ...
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What is the correct reading of 火防女?
I was playing around in the Japanese version of Dark Souls, and i came across the word 火防女 , which in english they translated as "Firekeeper".
I have not been studying japanese for long, but ...
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Pronunciation of おう: long sound (chouonpu) or two separate vowels [duplicate]
Google Translate's pronunciation for the word 思う sounds like /omou/ with two separate vowels sounds /o/ and /u/ at the end:
https://translate.google.com/?sl=ja&tl=en&text=%E6%80%9D%E3%81%86&...
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ロンドン橋落ちた is pronounced はし or ばし? [duplicate]
ロンドン橋落ちた (London bridge is falling down) is pronounced はし or ばし?
I heard this from a girl singing in the Guilty Crown episode 1 (8:30 mark). When I went to look it up, Google translate and ichi.moe ...
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How many ons does さとる have?
I'm a beginner at Japanese, and I've thought I'd learn the Hiragana alphabet by learning the Japanese words that are most important to me.
Naturally, I started with the word "enlightenment", ...
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Hiragana chart: yi, ye, wu - where and how?
A very naïve but logical question:
Why are these missing in the Hiragana chart?
yi,
ye,
wu
If there are, where can I find them? How to write them?
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Does Japanese mark restrictive and non-restrictive relatives differently?
I was wondering whether Japanese distinguishes restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses in some way, either structurally or prosodically.
English, for example, marks the distinction ...
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