TEACH ME JAPANESE!

Friday, September 11, 2009

OTHER HIRAGANAS

From the previous lesson, we told you about the vowels in HIRAGANA, how to pronounce these letters and also how to write them.

This is a part two of our Hiragana Lesson, so this is actually the continuation of the previous lesson. Just like in the previous lesson, we will also be focusing on how to pronounce and write the letters in hiragana alphabet in this lesson.

All Hiragana characters written below end with vowels except for "n/m". The only "consonant" that does not resemble that of English is the Japanese "r". It is slightly "rolled" as if it were a combination of a "d", "r", and "l".

あ a	い i	う u	え e	お o
か ka	き ki	く ku	け ke	こ ko
が ga	ぎ gi	ぐ gu	げ ge	ご go
さ sa	し shi	す su	せ se	そ so
ざ za	じ ji	ず zu	ぜ ze	ぞ zo
た ta	ち chi	つ tsu	て te	と to
だ da	ぢ ji	づ zu	で de	ど do
な na	に ni	ぬ nu	ね ne	の no
は ha	ひ hi	ふ fu	へ he	ほ ho
ば ba	び bi	ぶ bu	べ be	ぼ bo
ぱ pa	ぴ pi	ぷ pu	ぺ pe	ぽ po
ま ma	み mi	む mu	め me	も mo
や ya		ゆ yu		よ yo
ら ra	り ri	る ru	れ re	ろ ro
わ wa	を wo	ん n/m

Exceptions:
1. は (ha) is pronounced "wa" when it immediately follows the topic of the sentence. It is usually only pronounced "ha" when it is part of a word.

2. へ (he) is pronounced "e" when it immediately follows a place or direction. Both of these are very simple to detect.

Note: You probably noticed that there are 2 "zu" and 2 "ji". づ (zu) and ぢ (ji) are very rarely used. づ (zu) only occurs when there is a つ (tsu) in front of it like in つづく (tsuzuku - to continue) or when a Kanji (Chinese character) that starts with つ (tsu) is paired at the end with another character changing the つ (tsu) to a づ (zu). The same applies for ぢ (ji). Since they are used so rarely I wouldn't worry about them too much. I will let you know whenever we come upon a word in which they are used.

Labels: LESSON 1

Friday, September 4, 2009

HIRAGANA

It is the main alphabet for Japanese. The Japanese language also consists of Chinese characters (Kanji), which we will get into later, and another alphabet, Katakana, which is mainly used for foreign words. Katakana will be covered in the next few lessons.

There are 5 vowels in the Japanese language. (a), pronounced "ahh", (i), pronounced like "e" in "eat", (u), pronounced like "oo" in "soon", (e), pronounced like "e" in "elk", and (o), pronounced "oh". All Hiragana characters end with one of these vowels, with the exception of (n). The only "consonant" that does not resemble that of English is the Japanese "r". It is slightly "rolled" as if it were a combination of a "d", "r", and "l". { source }

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This lesson will tackle aboout the VOWELS of the HIRAGANA ALPHABET,
The "A" "I" "U" "E" & "O"

Like what we said earlier, the pronunciation of these vowels are also the same as the pronunciation of the vowels in the english alphabet, A= like AHHH, I= like EAT, U= like MOON, E= like EGG, O=like DOG !

Now that you know how to pronounce these vowels, now we will tell you how to write them in Japanese. Here's how:

A = あ
I = い
U = う
E = え
O = お

NOTE: It would be a lot easier to write them nex time, when you keep on practicing.

Credits : Trixhie

Labels: LESSON 1