Hiragana consists of 46 basic characters which can represent all of the sounds in spoken Japanese, with a few variations which are closely related to some basic Hiragana and its sounds. Japanese children and foreign Japanese learners start learning Japanese from here in order to read and write Japanese. Hiragana is the most basic Japanese writing system, the core Japanese alphabet. Later, we’ll also go more into comparing Japanese pronunciation to English. For learning Japanese pronunciation, Hiragana is the most important and thus we focus on Hiragana here. Kanji is Chinese characters and both Hiragana and Katakana are a syllabic grapheme. The Japanese writing system is a combination of three different characters: Hiragana (ひらがな), Katakana (カタカナ), and Kanji (漢字). 1- What is the Japanese Language Writing System? Once you master Hiragana / Katakana, you can pronounce anything in Japanese, as they’re the cornerstone of pronunciation in the Japanese language. It’s essential to know the Japanese writing systemin order to learn Japanese pronunciation efficiently and effectively. Ready to pronounce Japanese words like a native? Let’s get started! Here’s our detailed guide to Japanese pronunciation to help you learn efficiently with JapanesePod101! Consider this our Japanese pronunciation key. You can master Japanese pronunciation much faster than you think once you know the rules and tips. As such, don’t be afraid to learn Japanese pronunciation.
Further, each syllable in Japanese has the same length and strength, as opposed to English where you have to be careful about which syllables to stress and speak strongly. Learning Japanese pronunciation isn’t as difficult as learning Japanese grammar or its writing system, and if you can speak clearly, Japanese people will understand you even if your grammar and vocabulary aren’t perfect.Ĭompared to English, Japanese pronunciation is easier as it has less vowels and consonants than English does. When learning a new language, pronouncing words correctly is one of the most important things, especially for practical communication.