Japanese Pronunciations

• There are five basic vowels in Japanese, a, i, u, e and o, and they will always have the same basic sound. In Japanese, "a" will always be pronounced like the "a" sound in "father" or "aha." The "i" will always be pronounced like "ee" in English, as in "bee" and "tree." The "u" sound will always sound like the "ew" in words like "chew" and "threw." The "e" sound will sound like the "e" in "end." And the "o" will always sound like "throw" or "oh." Once you master these basic vowels, you can pronounce nearly any Japanese syllable, as they all flow from that basic "a, i, u, e, o" formula.
  
  Using the vowel pronunciations above as a guide, you can pronounce the basic Japanese syllables. There is also an "n" sound which is a syllable unto itself. One of the Japanese words for an apology, "Gomen," is not the two-syllable word most English speakers will want to pronounce when they see it, but a three-syllable word consisting of equal parts "go," "me" and "n."
  
  

Fluency

• While the pronunciations of specific sound combinations will not change the way they do in English and other languages, there are a few ways in which those sounds are softened. Most Japanese verbs end in "-masu." Many Japanese will soften the pronunciation of that final "u" to the point where you may not hear it, especially when the verb is not the end of the sentence. "Wakarimasu?" with a full pronunciation of the "u" and a questioning tone of voice can mean "Do you understand?" Similarly, "Wakarimasu ka?" with a softened or dropped "u" sound will mean the same thing.
  
  Verbs in the past tense almost always end in "-shita." Most Japanese combine the two sounds in that ending, "shi" and "ta," so quickly that it sounds as if the "i" has been dropped. So the word "Wakarimashita" will come out sounding more like "Wakarimashta," with the "i" missing in action.
  
  There are no "l" or "v" sounds in Japanese. The pronunciations of foreign loan words with those sounds are altered accordingly, with a "r" sound replacing the "l" and a "b" sound replacing the "v."
  
  

Harder Sounds

• There are a few sounds that can be a little more challenging for nonnative speakers. The hardest is the "r" sound, which is actually closer to a "d" sound in English. To make this sound, try to pronounce an "r" syllable such as "ra," but instead of allowing the tongue to fully curl as it hits the roof of the mouth, just allow the tongue to hit the roof of the mouth slightly.
  
  The "tsu" sound, as in "tsunami," has a hard "t" in front of it (not the soft "su" sound many English speakers use when they encounter this syllable). The "f" sound as in "Fuji" is not a hard "f," but something between a "fu" and a "hu" sound.