Knowing the rules of Japanese pronunciation is key to getting rid of your accent and effectively communicating with native speakers.

If you want to:

• make sure you’re not missing any important rules
• speak more clearly and make people understand what you say
• better comprehend what your fellow Japanese friends say

Then keep reading this post, and you will be able to improve your pronunciation and overall communication skills :)

Basic 5 Rules of Japanese Pronunciation

There are 5 basic rules of pronunciation you should follow to improved your Japanese.

While they may be different from English, once you get a handle on these rules, you’ll see a huge improvement in your Japanese.

Here are the basic 5 rules:

1. Spelling Tells Pronunciation
2. Flat Pronunciation
3. Pitch Accent
4. Pronounce Non-Accent Vowel Properly
5. Vowel Based Syllable

Let’s look at these one by one :)

1. Spelling Tells Pronunciation

In Japanese, the spelling you see is how you pronounce which isn’t the case in English.

For example, あなた is pronounced “A-Na-Ta”. It’s that simple - just say each letter.

In English, spelling doesn’t always match the pronunciation (like “island” is not pronounced “is land”).

So, in Japanese, the spelling tells you exactly how to say the word. Once you learn the pronunciation of the Japanese alphabet (Hiragana), you’ll be able to read anything.

Just keep in mind that there are a few exceptions to this rule, which I’ll cover later in the post.

2. Flat Pronunciation

Japanese pronunciation is relatively flat with a subtle accent compared to English.

By saying flat, you don’t put a lot of emphasis or stretch into your words.

Look at the word わたし (wa ta shi) as an example. It is pronounced flat (evenly) without any accent.

Some English speakers might say it like wa ta shi (with accent on “ta”), but it sounds really off to native Japanese speakers.

So remember, Japanese words are generally pronounced in a flat, even tone.

3. Pitch Accent

Even though Japanese is generally spoken flat, some words have a subtle pitch accent. So, Japanese is categorised as a pitch-accent language.

To understand pitch accents, you need to look at each syllable (part) of the word and see which one has the accent.

For instance, あめ can mean two different words depending on which part of letters you place an accent to:

• あめ (A me) means “rain”
• あめ (a Me) means “candy”

You wouldn’t want to eat rain or have candy weather (hopefully!), so the placement of the accent is pretty important.

Keep in mind that Japanese is a pitch-accent language and try not to stress or stretch out syllables like you would in English.

Doing so could make your Japanese sound like English.

4. Pronounce Non-Accent Vowel Properly

Unlike English, non-accent vowels also need to be pronounced properly.

Not many people talk about this when it comes to learning Japanese pronunciation, but I think this is one of the biggest difference from English.

See the example below for what I mean:

“National” is pronounced as “ˈnæ-ʃə-nəl” - which uses weak vowel of “ə” in the second and third syllables

Japanese would say it “na sho na ru” - without ə vowel and pronounce each vowel properly instead

Translate “national” into Japanese - こくさい is pronounced as “ko ku sa i” which you see vowels in every syllable

If you apply English pronunciation to こくさい, you may pronounce “ko k sai” with “u” vowel dropped from the second syllable.

So, try not to drop any vowel in Japanese even if it is not in an acented syllable. This will help to get rid of your English accent.

5. Vowel Based Syllable

Japanese words are formed by 2 ways:

• Vowel
• Consonant + Vowel

Generally, no letter is formed by only consonant except ん. That’s why you see so many vowels when Japanese is writen in Romaji.

Let’s see an example to help you understand:

• “Straight” is pronounced as “streɪt”
• ストレート (“Straight” in Katakana) is pronounced as “su to re - to”

Vowels are added to consonants (“s” and “t” in this case) as consonant cannot exist without a vowel in Japanese.

This is how English words are pronounced with a Japanese accent.

When you speak Japanese, make sure to include a vowel in every syllable to get rid of your English accent.

Essential 4 Special Rules of Japanese Pronunciation

Along with the basics, there are 4 special rules that you need to learn to make your Japanese sounds natural and fluent.

These rules are essential for good verbal communication:

1. Pronounce は as Wa (not Ha)
2. Pronounce を as お (not Wo)
3. Pronounce う and い as ー (not U and I)
4. Pronounce し す as S (drop the trailing vowel I and U)

Let’s dig into these with examples :)

1. Pronounce は as Wa (not Ha)

Not sure why, but you have to pronounce は as “Wa” when it is composition.

What this means is, when you see a sentence like “〜 は 〜”, you pronounce は as “wa”.

Let’s take a look at an example here:

• わたし は ジョン です。 (I’m John.) to be pronounced as “Watashi wa jon des”
• わたし は あなた と はなす。 (I talk with you.) to be pronounced as “Watashi wa anata to hanasu”

You see the second example has 2 は but they are pronounced differently. It is because one is composition but the other is a part of word.

There is absolutely no case to pronounce these interchangeably, so make sure you know which sound to make.

2. Pronounce を as お (not Wo)

を is spelled as “Wo” in Romaji, but pronounced as “お” practically.

Native Japanese is aware that を should be pronounced as “Wo” in theory, but for some reasons, we say お “O” and feel weird if you say “Wo”.

This is just how it is, so hope you stick to what native Japanese does here.

3. Pronounce う and い as ー (not U and I)

Under a certain case, “う” is pronounced as a prolonged sound, represented as “ー”.

To be specific, when any of “O” sound (like お こ そ と, etc) sits before う, う is pronounced as ー (stretching previous sound).

Likewise, “い” is also pronounced as “ー” under the same condition.

See the examples below:

とうきょう (Tokyo) is pronounced as とーきょー

えいご (Eigo) is pronounced as えーご

These 2 special cases can occur in single word:

えいきょう (Eikyou) is pronounced as えーきょー

せいそう (Seiso) is pronounced as せーそー

This is very common, so you may want to practice it to get used to it.

4. Pronounce し す as S (drop the trailing vowel I and U)

Native Japanese often drops the trailing vowel of し and す.

For example:

• した “shita” is pronounced like “shta” (without trailing “i” sound)
• です “desu” is pronounced like “des” (without trailing “u” sound)

You would find it easier to pronounce by dropping trailing i and u anyway. So just remember that these are sort of rules that native Japanese (subconciously) follows when they speak.

Summary

Hope you enjoyed the content and learnt something useful.

To summarise, I have outlined 5 basic rules and 4 special rules that can improve your Japanese pronunciation:

Basic Rules:

1. Spelling Tells Pronunciation
2. Flat Pronunciation
3. Pitch Accent
4. Pronounce Non-Accent Vowel Properly
5. Vowel Based Syllable

Special Rules:

1. Pronounce は as Wa (not Ha)
2. Pronounce を as お (not Wo)
3. Pronounce う and い as ー (not U and I)
4. Pronounce し す as S (drop the trailing vowel I and U)

With these rules in mind, go ahead and practice Japanese alphabets, words and sentences step by step.

You will find Japanese people understand you much better than before as you follow these rules :)