Lesson 2: Transcribing Double Consonants

There is another small letter つ, which is used when transcribing double consonants such as tt and pp.

Examples:

かった            katta      (won)

さっか            sakka      (writer)

はっぱ           happa      (leaf)

ざっし            zasshi      (magazine)

The right way to pronounce these words is by having a little pause on double consonants (e.g. katta is read as kat pause ta). Please take note of this because there are a lot of Japanese words that may mean different if not pronounced properly (e.g. katta-won while kata-shoulder).

Please take note also that double consonant n's as in sannen (3 years), are written with ん + a Hiragana with an initial n sound (な,に,ぬ,ね,の).

Examples:

さんねん       sannen     (3 years)
あんない       annai       (guide)

When the same vowel is placed one right after the other, the pronunciation of the vowel becomes about twice as long as the single vowel. Be sure to hold the sound long enough, because the length of the vowel can change one word to another.

aa          おばあさん      obaasan       (Grandmother)　          cf.    おばさん         obasan     (Aunt)
ii            おじいさん　   ojiisan         (Grandfather)                        おじさん         ojisan       (Uncle)
uu          すうじ              suuji            (number)

ee       The long ee sound is usually transcribed by adding い to an e-vowel Hiragana. There are few       words, however in which え is used instead of い.    
            えいが            eega              (movie)
            おねえさん      oneesan         (big sister)

oo        The long oo sound is in most cases transcribed by adding and う to an o-vowel Hiragana. There are however, words in which the long vowel is transcribed with an お, for historical reasons.
            ほうりつ          hooritsu         (law)
            とお                too                (ten)

The pronunciation of Katakana and its combinations are the same as those of Hiragana except for long vowels which are written with ー.

Example
カー                kaa                     (car)
スキー            sukii                    (ski)
スーツ            suutsu                  (suit)
ケーキ            keeki                    (cake)
ボール            booru                   (ball)

Vowels to be dropped

The vowels i and u are sometimes dropped when placed between voiceless consonants (k,s,t,p and h) or at the end of the utterance preceded by voiceless consonants.

Example:

すきです。        s(u)kidesu         (Like it)

Proceed to next lesson.