Pronunciation

Vowels

Japanese has both short and long vowels and the distinction is often important. In romanized Japanese, long vowels are marked with a macron, so that ō represents "long O".

Hiragana characters (ひらがな)

a i u e o あいうえお a i u e o k かきくけこ ka ki ku ke ko s さしすせそ sa shi su se so t たちつてと ta chi tsu te to n なにぬねの na ni nu ne no h はひふへほ ha hi fu he ho m まみむめも ma mi mu me mo y やゆよ ya yu yo r らりるれろ ra ri ru re ro w わを wa (w)o ん n g がぎぐげご ga gi gu ge go z ざじずぜぞ za ji zu ze zo d だぢづでど da ji zu de do b ばびぶべぼ ba bi bu be bo p ぱぴぷぺぽ pa pi pu pe po ky きゃきゅきょ kya kyu kyo sh しゃしゅしょ sha shu sho ch ちゃちゅちょ cha chu cho hy ひゃひゅひょ hya hyu hyo gy ぎゃぎゅぎょ gya gyu gyo j じゃじゅじょ ja ju jo by びゃびゅびょ bya byu byo

a あ/ア
like 'a' in "father"

i い/イ
like 'i' in "machine"

u う/ウ
like 'oo' in "hoop"

e え/エ
like 'e' in "set"

o お/オ
like 'o' in "rope"

n ん/ン
short 'n' at the end of a syllable, pronounced as 'm' before 'b', 'p' or 'm'.

Note that "u" is often weak at the end of syllables. In particular, the common endings -desu and -masu are usually pronounced as "des'" and "mas'" respectively.