I am a native Japanese speaker and I learnt English as a second language and I must say pronunciation is a big deal in any language, including Japanese.

In this post, I want to explain why pronunciation matters in Japanese and give you a step-by-step guide to help you learn it effectively.

Hope this helps and more people speak Japanese with beautiful pronunciation :)

3 Reasons Pronunciation is Vital for Learning Japanese

Why is pronunciation so important for Japanese learners?

Well, it can impact your ability to:

• be understood when you speak
• understand others when they speak to you
• effectively communicate (pronunciation is more important than grammar)

Think about it, if you’ve ever talked to a Japanese person whose English pronunciation wasn’t great, you probably struggled to understand them. It’s the same for native Japanese speakers when they talk to non-native Japanese speakers.

Pronunciation is the foundation of verbal communication, and just having good vocabulary and grammar is not enough. In fact, speaking with basic words with good pronunciation is so much more important and effective.

Some people may be worried about grammar but native Japanese speakers can often understand what you’re trying to say just based on your words, as long as they can catch them (that’s where pronunciation comes in).

For these reasons, I highly recommend that Japanese learners at all levels to learn and practice pronunciation :)

5 Steps Guide of Learning Japanese Pronunciation

So, how should you learn pronunciation?

Here’s the learning Roadmap:

• Learn basic rules and difference with English
• Alphabet & Phonetics
• Word & Accent
• Sentence & Intonation
• Continuous Practice

These are the steps of how I learnt English pronunciation, and I believe it is effective to learn Japanese too :)

Let’s look into these more closely.

Basic Rules and Difference with English

The pronunciation rules for English and Japanese are quite different because they come from different linguistic backgrounds.

So, it is important to know the basics of Japanese pronunciation and how it differs from English to speed up your learning.

Here are the key rules to know:

• Japanese pronunciation is relatively flat with a subtle accent
• The accent is expressed with pitch, not the length
• Japanese words are formed by “Vowel” or “Consonant + Vowel” (syllables)
• Non-accent vowel also needs to be pronounced properly
• There are some exceptions (like skipped sound)

A typical example: こんにちわ (Konnichiwa) is commonly pronounced like “Kən-’nɪ-ʧwa” by an English speaker. It is because many English words have an accent at the second-to-last syllable, and stretch it out.

But it should actually be pronounced as “‘Kon-ni-chi-wa” (Kon slightly higher pitched, and the rest is flat)

Learning and following these can make your Japanese pronunciation sound much more natural and easier to understand.

And to do so, I recommend you to start from Hiragana and phonetics :)

In addition, knowing some common rules of Japanese pronunciation can fast-track your learning effectively. See the post below for more details :)

Japanese Pronunciation Rules: 5 Basics and 4 Special Cases

Alphabet & Phonetics

The foundation of Japanese pronunciation is Hiragana, which is the Japanese alphabet. If you don’t pronounce Hiragana correctly, you’ll end up speaking with a strong accent that Japanese people may have trouble understanding.

Luckily, it is not as hard as English.

Here’s what you should do in this phase:

• Learn all Hiragana (あ to ん)
• Learn the phonetics for each Hiragana and practice (lip movements, tongue position, etc)

I would say there are 95 sounds in Japanese based on 5 vowels and 23 consonants in details, but you don’t have to spend a lot of time practicing all of them. Just focus on the sounds that are hard for English speakers.

A common mistake is to pronounce “ら” (ra) in an English way, without touching the back of your gums, just because it’s spelled with “r” in Romaji.

Keep in mind that Romaji only gives you a rough idea, not accurate phonetics.

So it’s important to know the proper phonetics of Hiragana. This way, you’ll be able to make sounds that are easy for native Japanese to understand and avoid confusion.

See the post below for more detailed explanations for learning with audios.

Mastering Pronunciation of Japanese Alphabet (Hiragana) with Audio

Word & Accent

Words are made up of letters (alphabets) with an accent.

Here, you practice pronouncing with good phonetics (movements of lips and tongue) to make accurate sound.

For example, the word “わたし” is written as “wa-ta-shi” in Romaji, but you cannot read it like English.

You need to pronounce “wa” with less “woo” sound, “ta” with slightly higher pitch without stretching.

You focus on training the transition of sounds with phonetics for various combinations of letters with accents.

The goal is to be able to say any Japanese word you see written in Hiragana, but not learning new vocabulary. Just pick up any words to practice your pronunciation but don’t need to know the meaning of them.

In Japan, the way you accent a word is important as it can change the meaning of what you’re saying. You can check the accent of a word by looking it up in a dictionary.

Accents are explained in more details in the post below :)

Understand and Practice Japanese Accent to Speak Like A Native

Sentence & Intonation

When you’re comfortable pronouncing individual words, it’s time to move on to sentences.

Your focus in this stage should be on:

• Breaking down a sentence into words and phrases
• Practicing pronouncing words in a continuous flow
• Learning and practicing the right intonation (pitch and stress)

Breaking down Japanese sentences into words can be a bit tricky since there are no spaces. If you struggle with this, consider using learning materials that already split sentences into words for you.

Then practice pronouncing multiple words together as a phrase. For example:

わたし は いま ねむい です。(Watashi wa ima nemui desu) - meaning, “I’m sleepy now.”

Look at this as 3 phrases

• Watashi wa
• ima
• nemui desu

Make sure you accurately pronounce each word with good phonetics before moving on to reading the entire sentence.

When reading a whole sentence, intonation becomes crucial. This means you need to pitch and stress to emphasise particular part of sentence.

In the above example, you would say “nemui” with a slightly higher pitch, since that’s the most important information you want to convey.

At this stage, you should be able to read any sentences written in Hiragana fairly well at a slow pace.

To become fluent in Japanese, you need to dedicate a lot of time and effort to practice.

See the post below to learn more about intonation in Japanese speaking :)

Japanese Intonation Explained To Improve Your Speech

Practice, Practice, Practice

Improving your pronunciation takes a lot of practice. Once you’re comfortable with sentences, try practicing in different ways to keep improving:

• Talk to yourself
• Have conversations with someone
• Shadow a native Japanese speaker by repeating and mimicking their speech
• Sing Japanese songs (this is a personal recommendation ^-^)

These are just a few examples of ways to practice. The most important thing is to speak with native Japanese speakers and get feedback to keep improving your pronunciation. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice and feedback! People are often happy to help.

Summary

It’s important to emphasize why having good pronunciation is crucial when learning Japanese. Here are a few reasons why:

• If your pronunciation isn’t good, people won’t understand you when you speak
• Good pronunciation is also necessary for understanding spoken Japanese
• Vocabulary and grammar alone aren’t enough for effective communication, you need good pronunciation too

To help you with your journey, I’ve outlined a step-by-step guide to learning Japanese pronunciation:

1. Learn the basic rules
2. Study the alphabet and phonetics
3. Practice pronouncing words and accent
4. Practice with sentence and learn intonation
5. Keep practicing!

It seems many people overlook pronunciation in Japanese because the language has relatively simple sounds. However, native Japanese speakers aren’t used to hearing the language spoken with foreign accents, so it’s important to strive for “good” pronunciation.

I hope this guide has been useful and wish you the best of luck with your learning journey. :)