| shitte | しって | knowing | shite | して | doing |
| kitte | きって | a stamp | kite | きて | coming |
| issho | いっしょ | together | isho | いしょ | last will |
| hikkaku | ひっかく | to scratch | hikaku | ひかく | comparison |
| matchi | マッチ | a match | machi | まち | town |
| itta | いった | went | ita | いた | board, plank |
Pronunciation of consonants
1. The Japanese r seems to give the most trouble to speakers of other languages. If you pronounce ra, ri, ru, re, and ro with exactly the same r as in English, you will not produce the correct Japanese sound. The Japanese r resembles a combination of the English r and l. So, relax your tongue and first practice saying la, li, lu, le and lo. Next, close the lips more, hold them fairly steady, and pronounce the same sounds without rolling your tongue. You will be able to produce the correct Japanese ra, ri, ru, re and ro that way.
2. The Japanese f as in Fuji-san, “Mt Fuji,” is very different from the English f in which you touch the lower lip with the upper teeth to get the sound. In Japanese, this is not done. The Japanese f is pronounced more like the English h.
3. The Japanese final n in such words as hon, “book,” and Nihon or Nippon, “Japan,” is a little different from the English final n in which the tongue touches the palate just behind the upper teeth, as in “one” and “ten.” The Japanese final n is nasalized and more relaxed; the tongue does not touch the upper palate.
4. All other consonants should be pronounced as they are in English.
Pronunciation of syllables
You must learn to pronounce each syllable clearly and with the same amount of stress. Each syllable must be equal in length. Note the number of syllables in the examples below. Remember, each syllable gets one beat, so a long vowel gets counted as two syllables. Give one beat to the consonant n and to the first consonant of the double consonant.
| Ohayō. | おはよう。 | o-ha-yo-o (4) | Good morning. |
| Ohayō gozaimasu. | おはよう ございます。 | o-ha-yo-o- go-za-i-ma-su (9) | Good morning. |
| Konnichi wa. | こんにちは。 | ko-n-ni-chi-wa (5) | Hello. |
| Konban wa. | こんばんは。 | ko-n-ba-n-wa (5) | Good evening. |
| hikkaku | ひっかく | hi-k-ka-ku (4) | to scratch |
Don’t put a heavy stress on any syllable. Particularly avoid the “potato” accent (a heavy stress on the second syllable of a three-syllable word) and the “macaroni” accent (a heavy stress on the third syllable of a four-syllable word). Practice the following proper names.
| Matsui | まつい | Hashimoto | はしもと |
| Nakao | なかお | Matsumoto | まつもと |
| Tanaka | たなか | Takahashi | たかはし |
| Yamada | やまだ | Yamanaka | やまなか |
Remember: keep each syllable clear, equal in length, and even in stress.
Phrasing
In English, a preposition such as “in,” “for,” “of,” or “at” is usually pronounced as a single unit: “in the ocean,” “during my vacation,” “for the company,” “at seven o’clock.” In Japanese, a particle (which often follows a noun) is pronounced as a part of the noun or noun phrase that precedes it. In the following sentence, a slash indicates the correct phrasing.
| Kōhii o / kudasai. | コーヒーを/ ください。 | Please give me a cup of coffee. |
| Sukiyaki ga /tabetai desu. | すきやきが/ たべたいです。 | I want to eat sukiyaki. |
| Nara e / ikitai desu. | ならへ/いきたいです。 | I want to go to Nara. |
If you get used to this phrasing, you can perceive each of the three sentence above as comprising two units rather than three—which makes your learning much easier. (Think how easy it is to learn telephone numbers when you think of them not as seven separate digits but as two units—three digits plus four digits, as in 555-3561.)
This phrasing rule is one of the most important in Japanese. In the numbered sentence-pattern models you will be studying, the phrasing is clearly marked with a slash. You need not always pause while speaking, but if you do, make sure that the pause comes where it is marked in the sentence patterns in this book. Your Japanese will sound much more natural to Japanese ears.
Chapter 1
(Lessons 1 – 4)
| Sentence Patterns Covered in Chapter 1 | ||
| Sentence Pattern 1 | NOUN + o / kudasai. | 〜を ください。 |
| Sentence Pattern 1A | NOUN + to + NOUN + o / kudasai. | 〜と 〜を ください。 |
| NOUN + to + NOUN + to + NOUN + o / kudasai. | 〜と 〜と 〜を ください。 | |
| Sentence Pattern 1B | Kore o / kudasai. | これを ください。 |
| Sore o / kudasai. | それを ください。 | |
| Are o / kudasai. | あれを ください。 | |
| Kono + NOUN + o / kudasai. | この〜を ください。 | |
| Sono + NOUN + o / kudasai. | その〜を ください。 | |
| Ano + NOUN + o / kudasai. | あの〜を ください。 |
Many words borrowed from other languages (mostly English) are used frequently in Japanese. Several of these will be introduced in this chapter to give you an immediate working vocabulary that you can easily retain and use with confidence in many situations. These borrowed words will also give you practice in Japanese pronunciation.
It is absolutely essential to practice these Japanese borrowed words with the correct Japanese pronunciation. As Jack Seward1 points out, the average citizen of Japan, upon hearing a Westerner (who is usually presumed to be an American) having difficulty speaking Japanese, often attempts to give that foreigner a helping hand by injecting as many borrowed words as he can into his own speech. The result is generally disastrous.
This kindness would be beneficial if the borrowed words were used and pronounced in Japanese as they are used and pronounced in the language from which they were borrowed. Unfortunately,