Help with pronunciation of letters and letter combinations.
<h3>Hi,</h3>
<h3><br>
I already know the hiragana and katakana alphabets really well. I
can just about right every letter without looking at a cheat sheet.
What I have been trying to do is say and practice speeking each letter
of the alphabet and some words. What I really have trouble with, is
saying the ra ri ru re ro letters and the tsu su ltters. I also have
trouble with the letter combinations like hya hyu hyo mya myu myo rya
ryu ryo nya nyu nyo bya byu byo pya pyu pyo gya gyu gyo. Last I have
trouble saying the double costanants like for example jaketto. I just
signed up to this site but would also enjoy learning to speak and say
the vocab words properly.</h3>
<h3><br>
Thank You!</h3>
<h3><br>
I already know the hiragana and katakana alphabets really well. I
can just about right every letter without looking at a cheat sheet.
What I have been trying to do is say and practice speeking each letter
of the alphabet and some words. What I really have trouble with, is
saying the ra ri ru re ro letters and the tsu su ltters. I also have
trouble with the letter combinations like hya hyu hyo mya myu myo rya
ryu ryo nya nyu nyo bya byu byo pya pyu pyo gya gyu gyo. Last I have
trouble saying the double costanants like for example jaketto. I just
signed up to this site but would also enjoy learning to speak and say
the vocab words properly.</h3>
<h3><br>
Thank You!</h3>
posted by ransu1986
Comments 4
maybe you can use this video to listen to the pronunciation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2rT8KhG8Cg
(Nintendo, did you send a video link for the alphabet song? That could work...)
For tsu つ and su す, it is like "su", only giving it a "ts" sound at the beginning, "su" being without; for double consonants (example: kya きゃ), "ki" and "ya" are placed together, forming "kiya", or "kya". Try saying it quickly...
You might try checking at your local library for "learn Japanese" CDs or cassette tapes - that will give you some (free) practice hearing the separate sounds and some words using those sounds. (They also tend to speak more slowly and clearly, depending on the maker of the program, which is helpful at the beginning.) I'm sure there are lots of online resources too...
Try the pronunciation lessons at studyjapanese.org; they are listed on this page, half way down the left hand column:
http://www.studyjapanese.org/lessons
There are sound files here for all of the syllables, as well as some examples to help distinguish between the sounds of syllables in words.
