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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1answer
19 views
Why is 鬼蜘 pronuenced おにぐも and not おにくも?
I noticed that sometimes the pronunciation changes when combining words. An other example is 不死斬り (ふしぎり) and 腹切り (はらきり); both 斬り and 切り are pronounced きり independently but only in 不死斬り is 斬り ...
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0answers
65 views
Google translate reliability? [on hold]
Hey reliable is google translate whenever I simply plug in the kanji from anywhere on the internet and plug it into the app? Also how reliable is the pronunciation?
6
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1answer
584 views
How to pronounce 1ターン?
I've seen the phrase 1ターン1度 "once per turn" used in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Card game, so it seems like ターン is a legit counter. But I'm not sure how to pronounce it. From what I've googled so far, some people ...
2
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1answer
63 views
Pronunciation of verbs ending in う
One of the things you learn when studying Japanese is that おう is pronounced like a long おお as in words like そうです (soo desu), but I would like to know if this rule also applies to verbs because there ...
6
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1answer
98 views
Are they the same: コショウ vs コショー
The question is are these two pronounced the same.
If they are how would one know how to spell them.
This applies to any case of ウ vs 一.
2
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1answer
151 views
Does this Kanji: 全効答 (Zen kō Kotae) mean “total efficiency” or at least convey it symbolically?
I've been playing around with using Kanji as a quick way to convey a company's goals and/or ideals. As I understand it, Zen 全 means "whole/complete", Kō 効 means "efficiency/result" and Kotae 答え means "...
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1answer
59 views
Is the し in はじめまして pronounced as “shi” or as “sh”? [duplicate]
Is this always the case for words that end in して similar to how です is pronounced "des"?
2
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1answer
122 views
Transcription and pronunciation of words that had “wi” in them in English and are「ウィ」in Japanese
I was looking up how the name Will Smith is pronounced and written in Japanese. Why does "Will" become 「ウィル」? I would have expected ワ to be used instead for the first sound.
I found mentions of the "...
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2answers
225 views
Pronunciation difference: イオ/イヨ
Is there a sound difference between イオ and イヨ (I can't hear a difference)?
When asked to spell baiorin in katakana I tend to mistake バイオリン with バイヨリン.
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1answer
114 views
How do I pronounce/Translate this last name: マッキェネン into english?
I'm translating this book, and the character's full name pops up as " クロウディア＝マッキェネン". I managed to translate the first name as Claudia, but I don't know if I should use McCunnen, McCullen, or some ...
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1answer
139 views
How to read mp3 in Japanese?
If I read it word by word in Japanese, it would be 'em pi san'. But, I once heard someone read it quite differently. How is it read in Japanese?
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2answers
176 views
Unvoiced vowels in katakana: special case?
When foreign words or proper names are used in Japanese, some modifications are necessary, in particular a lot of vowels are introduced. E.g. 'plastic' (two syllables) becomes プラスチック (five). In this ...
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2answers
267 views
Are words always pronounced as spelled?
I came across the word ケーブルカー, or cable-car.
Based on the pronunciation I have, the ブ and ル are pronounced like one syllable (like 'brr') instead of two like I expected ('bu ru').
Is this an ...
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1answer
163 views
How to Read 醤玉子?
I know that 玉子 is read "tamago". I also know that 醤油 is read "shouyu". I can imagine that 醤玉子 refers to the boiled egg that is submerged in soy sauce. How do you read it though? I assume it's read ...
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1answer
78 views
Difference between おじいさん and おじさん
I'm wondering if there is much difference in the pronunciation of the words or intonation of them. Is it just the long vowel?
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1answer
144 views
Is it common for Kanjis to have several pronounciation like for 乾?
While doing introductionary courses of Japanese, I stumble on a fact that afrights me about the difficulty of the language.
When congratulating each other around a drink: 乾杯
the Kanji 乾 is ...
3
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1answer
155 views
Are there many occurances of elongated syllables throughout the language?
I've been studying Japanese through Duolingo and I wouldn't say I've progressed very far. I've learned some of the basics of Hiragana and it's beginning to transition into Kanji. While learning ...
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2answers
94 views
Do words differing only in the voicedness of consonants act as functionally homophonous?
In Japanese, there are some sound differences that clearly distinguish words from one another, such as falling on a different 行 or 段 on the 五十音 ([傘]{かさ} vs. [風]{かぜ} or [友]{とも} vs その); while other ...
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1answer
93 views
What's the difference between these two names?
オタ
オター
I want a name translated but not sure which to pick, what sounds the best and what's the difference between them? The name which I'm trying to translate is "Oter".
10
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1answer
208 views
Do native speakers pronounce long vowels えい or おう as one long vowel, or two different vowels?
In Japanese, long vowels ā, ī, ū are written as ああ (aa), いい (ii), うう (uu). However, ē and ō, in most cases, written as えい (ei) and おう (ou), but in other cases as ええ (ee) and おお (oo).
For example:
先生{...
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0answers
81 views
What's the difference between “on”, “oto” and “ne”
I've seen some various examples where the kanji "音" has different readings (おん, おと and ね) and couldn't found out when to use each one. Is there a general rule to know each one should I use in an ...
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1answer
127 views
On hiragana, romaji and pronunciation
I have heard a Japanese teacher explain how long vowels should be pronounced and how they should be written when using hiragana. That's what I saw on the whiteboard:
がっこう - gakkoo, (not gakkou)
Is ...
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1answer
129 views
What are the common practice of reading names of modern Chinese people?
From what I've seen from the Japanese Wikipedia, names of communist figures (Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Xi Jinping) seem to be read with on'yomi (Mou Takutou, Tou Shouhei, Shuu Kinpei). On the other ...
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1answer
184 views
Pronunciation Troubles with トラブル and トラブる: Loanwords with both noun and verb ending in ru mora
Following this comment:
What is the difference in pronunciation or pitch accent between:
トラブル and トラブる
ダブル and ダブる
What are the regional differences (if any)?
Is the pronunciation rule ...
0
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1answer
66 views
Why the pronunciation of some words is different than their components? [duplicate]
美味しい is being pronounced おいしい, but it is not the sum of the way its kanji components are being pronounced. I think I have also seen it in some other words. So why is that the pronunciation of some ...
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1answer
112 views
今しかない!! pronouncation
My memory from playing the VN that the sentence is based off of is 87% certain in the protagonist's voice pronouncing the above as
"YareshKA-nai!!"
and meaning something similar to "I have to do ...
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1answer
98 views
Different pronunciations of 主
I just stumbled across this - rather simple - sentence from the novel 堕落の王:
それは魔王の意思ですらない。その目的は力の使用だけで、結果には興味すら抱かない。
ただ、主を見ていた。
It wasn't even the demon lord's will. His goal was only to ...
2
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1answer
162 views
Ocha in Hiragana [duplicate]
I'm pretty early into learning Japanese. I've started learning hiragana, when writing "ocha" in hiragana I've noticed it comes up as おちゃ now I know お is "o" and normally ち is "chi" while ゃ is ya. Now ...
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1answer
111 views
'mo' and 'demo' pronounciation research
I am looking for a native speaker who could answer the following question:
Is there any difference in pronunciation of the morpheme 'mo' in the following words (are there any differences in tone):
...
3
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1answer
220 views
How Dakuten works with Romaji?
I was reading different hiragana charts and saw that "ち(chi)", applying dakuten it can be read as "dzi" or "ji".
Other hiragana words in dakuten also have different ways of pronunciation depending ...
4
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1answer
145 views
Does any Japanese dialect use the schwa?
Pronunciation of [ə] is notoriously difficult for Japanese speakers, and while trying to communicate its importance in languages such as English and French, I started to wonder: do any dialects of ...
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3answers
205 views
How to pronounce ❛ た❜？
I am learning Japanese at a beginner's level. I am wondering how to pronounce the letter ❛ た❜ because according to the chart it should be pronounce as ta , but in listening materials and everyday ...
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2answers
125 views
How are numbers pronounced in (movie) titles? (i.e. ジョーズ３)
For example, ジョーズ３ (i.e. "Jaws Three") is in a list of movies. Would the "3" be pronounced "さん"? Typically, counter words follow after a number in Japanese. And sometimes the number's reading ...
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2answers
2k views
Which language レシート is adapted from?
レシート is supposed to mean receipt. The adaptation of the word looks a bit odd to me. If it comes from English, why does it lose the "p"? Why it uses a "shii" sound instead of a "ce" (to me there are ...
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1answer
87 views
Different pitch accent patterns of もっとも?
The word もっとも has a few different uses. For example, jisho.org lists the following:
最も（もっとも）
Adverb
most; extremely
Other forms
最も 【もとも】、尤も 【もっとも&#...
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2answers
149 views
How to pronounce noun compounds
How do I determine the pronounication of compound nouns such as 来年夏.
Obviously 来年の夏 is pronounced らいねんのなつ but what happens when I remove the の? Does it just become らいねんなつ? My guess from everything I'...
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1answer
117 views
い Pronunciations
I've wondered this for a while now but never thought to ask it until now. With regards to the い sound in Japanese, I understand that it's pronounced like a sort of shorter version of the e sound in "...
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1answer
358 views
Prolonged sounds in place of an を
I have noticed them in speech in several expressions:
ざまあみろ
手エ、出して
気イ抜くなよ
They are clearly an informal (if i have got it right) variant of を. But how common is this phenomenon? What ...
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0answers
93 views
What common words are written one way - but almost always pronounced a different way? (eg. 言う is generally spoken as 「ゆう」)
I am aware that [行く]{いく} is sometimes read 「ゆく」 but I do not think it is mostly read as 「ゆく」except in combinations. 例えば、行く手・行く先・行く春.
Whereas I almost never hear 言う as いう. These are the only two ...
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1answer
177 views
Pronouncing さ and ざ [duplicate]
How do you pronounce さ and ざ in Japanese? I understand that they are voiced and voiceless but how do you say them? I am currently learning Japanese.
I am English, I can say "bus" and "buzz". However, ...
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0answers
160 views
Words in the Kagoshima dialect
Using this Wikipedia article here, I learnt that words in Standard Japanese may encounter something called sonorant gliding while converting to Kagoshima dialect. For what is written here, these are ...
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2answers
237 views
Why is 輩 in 先輩 pronounced ぱい while 輩 in 後輩 is pronounced はい?
I wonder in this case if there is any rule that turns H to P.
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1answer
111 views
What is the correct pronunciation of 唯一
For the word (or composition of two words): 唯一,
sometimes also written as: 唯一つ,
Two possible pronunciations come to my mind:
ゆいいつ [yuiitsu] -onyomi
and
ただ ひとつ [tada hitotsu] -kunyomi
Which one is ...
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1answer
140 views
What dialect replaces です with a shorter version of it (ーす)?
The title pretty much explains itself, here is an example: Nio from Akuma no Riddle, the whole thing has been bugging me for awhile, thanks in advance.
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0answers
82 views
Pitch accent in combination with the を particle
I learnt that a word like 花 (はな) is of pitch pattern (2), i.e. with a drop after the last mora in case it is followed by a particle. Yet, when I hear people use a word like this is combination with ...
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1answer
756 views
Should you say English loanwords in the Japanese pronunciation?
For example, if an American travels to Japan, would they ask for "kohi" in a "koppu", maybe a "foku" for their "supagetti", or would they use "coffee", "fork", etc.?
Which would be more socially ...
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0answers
59 views
Why is だいがく pronounced as daingaku instead of daigaku? [duplicate]
I was listening to a recording of a Japanese person pronouncing daigaku as in university. And the g sounded like ng. Why is this so? Should I pronounce it like that as well?
Thanks.
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1answer
105 views
pronunciation of は [duplicate]
Hello I'm a beginner and I'm wondering when to use the right pronunciation of は, because sometimes it's pronounced "ha" and sometimes "wa".
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3answers
446 views
What's the difference between “sa” and “za” with pronunciation?
Background
I am currently trying to learn Japanese and I've done really well in my opinion (IMO). I am trying to learn about voiced consonants with Hiragana.
What I need to know
I know you must ...
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1answer
143 views
Is it Amekakure or Amegakure?
In Naruto the village hidden in rain is called Amegakure in English Version and Pronounced like "Ame-ga-kure" in both Japanese and English Version.
But if you try to translate the kanji of this 雨隠れの里 ...
