Warning #1: I am not a native Japanese speaker. So please do not accept anything I say in here as 100% gospel truth. I could very well be wrong on many things. :P But, as the Japanese say: 頑張ります!

Warning #2: I am an avid romaji-hater. I prefer Japanese script over romaji anyday, and it is best for you to learn how to read the basic Japanese kana (a very easy task compared to English reading) so as to prevent both quirks in your pronunciation and much confusion between the massive amounts of homynyms in the language. I'll do my best to use romaji, but oftentimes I'll use Kana and Kanji. Please forgive me if I do this. ^_^

Speaking Japanese: The Basics

Japanese is probably one of the easiest languages to pronounce in the world. Ever. Why?

Well, first, Japanese sounds do not change. There are one or two exceptions to this rule, but that's about it, and they are easily learned.

Second, Japanese has only 48 sounds. English easily has over twice that many. This accounts not only for ease of pronunciation in Japanese, but the immense difficulty the Japanese have when attempting to learn English...or any other language, for that matter. :)

Third, Japanese sounds are syllables, rather than individual consonants or vowels. The only syllable with a vowel is the 'n' syllable.

Anyway, Japanese pronunciation is best expressed in the hiragana chart, which I'll show in a few minutes. But first, how to pronounce the different sounds:

Vowels

A is like the ä in father.

I is pronounced like i in machine.

U is pronounced like the u in Jupiter.

E is pronounced like the e in ether.

O is the o in over.

Consonants (Any consonants not listed are pronounced more or less as they are in English)

Ch is pronounced like the ch in chip. It is never pronounced like a k. Ever.

The 'F' in 'Fu' is not like an English or European F, in which the lips touch together. Rather, you start out like an English F, but you don't touch your lips together. It's very much a cross between F and H. But this isn't something to stress about, as it comes across just like an English F more often than not.

G is always pronounced like the g in get or give. It is never pronounced

Japanese has two n's. The first is equivalent to the English N and it is always pronounced as part of a syllable. The second, the 'n', is its own syllable, and it is nasalized. Now, here's one of the exceptions to the no-changing-sounds rule. When this 'n' syllable is combined with a 'b' or 'p' syllable, it changes to an 'm' sound. Hence, we get combinations like 'mba' or 'mpa,' in Romaji, though they are written using the same symbols in Japanese. The phrase 'がんばって！' is pronounced as 'Gambatte', though the literal translitteration of the Hiragana would come out to be 'Ganbatte!' The change is totally natural and almost impossible to resist, so it's very easy to learn.

R is the trickiest of all Japanese consonants. Some people say it is an R. Some people say it's like an L. But the fact of that matter is: it's neither. The Japanese R is a cross between and R and a L. It is made by pronouncing the Spanish R, but the tongue touches the roof of the mouth behind the teeth, which causes the L-sound to get mixed in there. The Japanese do not roll their R's like English speakers do. It's hard when you start out, but it becomes natural once you figure it out and use it often. Now when I try (and I have to consciously try) to use the English R to pronounce a Japanese word, it sounds very weird. :)

Tsu is not 'su.' As a matter of fact, there is no true English equivalent: tt is its own unique sound. Sadly, I do not know how to express the difference very well, since I picked it up through listening and attempting to mimic the sound. It does sound similar to the sound in 'footsore.' That should help you get a basis on what I mean.

The y in combinations like 'Ryu' or 'Gya' is not like the heavy English equivalent. It's more like a glide between the consonant and vowel. Again, not something to sweat over.

Hiragana Chart

よし、now I'll give you the Hiragana Chart. This image is from Omniglot.com. Ignore the Kanji beside the Hiragana. Those are the Kanji the Hiragana were derived from, and they don't have any relavence to what we're discussing right now.



Note: 'Wi' and 'We' are not longer used, except in older texts. As such, you don't need to learn them.

Note: Grammatical particles 'wa' and 'e' use the symbols は and へ respectively. This is one of the reasons to hate Romaji. :P

And the last note: Double consonants, such as the one in 'Ganbatte', are marked in by a small つ in Hiragana, hence: がんばって. These double consonants are double consnants: they are pronounced separately with a small break between them, like in the p's in 'hip pocket' or the two k sounds in 'bookcase.' The only exception to this rule is the 'nn' combination, which is in fact a pronunciation of two separate syllables. Hence, they are separated by an apostrophe in Romaji: 'kan'nen'. This is yet another reason to dislike Romaji. :P

Additional Syllables

And here's a nice chart containing the rest of the possible syllables:



Katakana and the Evil of Japlish

Like it or not, Japanese has yet another set of symbols used to write the exact same sounds as the Hiragana, which a few exceptions. Many Katakana symbols look totally different from Hiragana symbols. Which begs the ultimate question:

WHY?!!!

Well, why the heck does English have CAPITAL and lowercase letters? Anyone want to explain that to me? Anyone? They are used to write the exact same sounds, and many don't look like their counterparts, though the differences are less radical than those of the Katakana. So don't complain. The capitals and lowercases in English developed only because some monks in the 14th century or something wanted the script in their books to look prettier. :P

Believe or not, Katakana do serve a purpose: they are used by the Japanese to distinguish between native words and foreign-loan words, such as 'terebi' for TV. Before Katakana, ALL foreign loan words were written in Kanji. This led to a massive outbreak of carpel-tunnel syndrome in the Japanese population, so they decided to make the Katakana. (J/K :P )

Plus, they have a sharper look and are easier to recognize than Hiragana, so in many cases they are used to emphasis. Despite the horrible butchering of foreign words at the hands of Japanese pronunciation and the difficulty in figuring out what the HECK the katakana are saying, especially when it comes to English names, if you want to learn Japanese, you have to learn Katakana.

So, here's the Katakana chart:



And the rest of the combinations:



Note again: The 'V' combinations are very new and are not actually pronounced as the English 'V'. They are pronounced as 'B' and are actually not used much. Which leads to the question 'Why?!' yet again. ;)

A large part of this information, in order to make sure I was doing it right, came from Cherryblossom-garden.com's Japanese lessons and the Random House Japanese-English English Japanese Dictionary by Seigo Nakao.

Next time I'll begin the basics of Japanese grammar, including the wonderful icon of simplicity that is the Japanese verb and the 'wa' particle. Enjoy. ^_^

Awesome lil intro...but I have a question...what's the difference between the two representations of "ji" in Hiragana and Katakana?

Ah yes. This is another thing to hate romaji for.

じ and　ぢ have no difference in the way they are pronounced. The same with ず and　づ and the katakana equivalents. They are simply a quirk in the kana. They are different to the Japanese, but only in the way they 'spell' the words in hiragana. They have no phonetic difference. Yes, it's important to learn them, but they aren't a huge issue.

That help?

Yey! Japanese Lessons! Thanks for the Lessons.
I started studying Japanese last November/December. But I stopped studying since first week of January. Got too lazy.. and just becoz of this online rpg game i got addicted to.. lol. oh well, im planning to resume my lessons this February and i'll be glad to share it here.! :)

I always wanted to learn Japanese because when I was young (13-17), I like to play Japanese RPG, listen to Japanese song, anime, manga, drama, car, girl? =P
Now I am 23 (old) I dont think I have that free time to learn it anymore :(. So regret I didnt enroll for Japanese class like my sis did T_T *regret*

^hrm... I'll turn 23 in about 7 and a half months...

I was enrolled in Japanese classes for 2 years...I was fine the first year, but the second year, it started getting weird, because the lessons seemed unmotivated and unfocused...I think I'll do better studying on my own, so I'm rather happy to see these threads here so I can at least have a good starting point...

just started learning Jap begining of last year =P
still very bad at translating though, ned more help in vocab

i just started learning last month!

Gin, its nice, the way u started this lesson, im sure most people will get it once they read through the whole thing

im kinda confused though, kanji basically Han Zi in chinese, so does that mean that the amount of kanji in japanese is equivalent to the amount of Hani Zi in chinese?

and if hiraganas can form words, why use kanji? if kanji can form words as well, why use hiragana?

kinda confused, so dont get mad at me... ;)

You should ask your Japanese class teacher lol ;D .
may be I will learn it when I retired or when I am old ahahah

Those are FAQ's about Japanese writing, ItisHer:

They are basically similar. They are derived from the same set of characters, but Japanese and Chinese characters have branched off from one another. Chinese characters today are simpler than Japanese characters, while Japanese script maintains its own traditional style. However, one who is well-versed in Japanese or Chinese characters should be able to recognize the characters despite their variations.

Japanese characters hold *much* more information than Han Zi. A Han Zi character, for the most part, holds the symbolic meaning of the character and one reading. Kanji, on the other hand, not only hold more than one Chinese reading, but their own Japanese reading (oftentimes these are 3 or 4 Japanese readings per character). As such, one needs to know about 2000 characters to read and write Japanese, whereas a Chinese reader needs a grip of at least 3000 characters to write his language. Because of this difference and the larger amount of information Kanji can hold, Chinese scholars attempting to decipher ancient Chinese texts (readings of the characters have changed overtime) study and learn the Japanese characters first so as to train their minds to easily allow new readings for a character.

There are many reasons for this. One is Tradition and Culture. Chinese characters have been used in Japan as standard for nearly 2000 years. They are part of the culture, and Japanese are *very* proud of their culture. But the main reason is far more practical: the Japanese phonetic range (ie, the number of sounds the language can produce) is *very* limited: only 48 sounds or so. Hence, the Japanese language is haunted by massive amounts of homynyms, oftentimes very radical in their differences.

For example, 歴史 and 轢死 are both pronounced 'rekishi.' The first one means history. The other means 'death by being run over by a train or car.' :blink:

The only way to easily distinguish between them is, guess what: the Kanji. It's very common in conversation for people to 'write' characters on their palms with their fingers to clarify which Kanji they're using--and thus, what they're trying to say.

Other reasons include the fact that Kanji can be read at an incredibly fast rate and that they automatically allow the mind to distinguish between words then reading. Try writing out a sentence with as much Kanji as you know, and then write it out in pure hiragana. You'll find that not only will you be able to read the Kanji sentence much faster, but the words will all fall into place to the extent that you don't need spaces. If you've ever wondered why Japanese text doesn't have spaces, that's the answer: the Kanji.

Those answer your questions? ^_^

wahh cool. Chinese is harder to learn because of too much of characters. For me Chinese word is unique and around the world there are 1.3 billion of speaker.
Origin of Chinese characters were invented at about 2600 BC, but archaeological evidence only dates Chinese characters to the Shang dynasty in 1700 BC. :D
I study Chinese for 11 years yet I think I learned not more than 1000 characters. but for the pronunciation I perfer Japanese more than Chinese

so basically u can write a sentence with kanji alone? does that mean hiraganas arent all that important?

and how do u learn the sound(Pin Yin) for kanji?

i wont be here for a while..going off somewhere...but please answer my confused mind

thanks for the detailed explanation btw..

No, you can't write a sentence with all Kanji in Japanese. Hiragana is just as important as Kanji. It expresses the verb tenses, the grammar, and helps distinguish between the readings. Without hiragana, the Japanese writing system wouldn't function. Katakana also helps the Japanese to distinguish between native and foreign words. It's all the writing styles--hiragana, katakana, and kanji--put together that make up the Japanese writing system. All three are important and have their own functions and responsibilities, and all three are needed to write in Japanese. ^_^

Memorization, but it's not as bad as it sounds if you use the right method.

Trying to learn the Kanji or Pin Yin by rote memorization is suicide. Except for the Japanese, who drill the Kanji into their heads all their lives (and even then they still forget them), rote memorization just does not work. You can't tackle the Kanji the same way you tackle an alphabet. Alphabets are very limited in the number of symbols they have. Kanji number in the thousands.

I've been using the Heisig method to memorize the Kanji. It's called Remember the Kanji by James Heisig, and there are 3 volumes in the series. (the third is sold on a CD, and I believe some sites sell it online) Note that this series is meant Japanese only. However, the concept and method of the first volume can be applied to Chinese characters as well.

The first volume starts off by teaching you a mneumonic method to keep the meaning and writing of the Kanji in your head. It does NOT teach you how to read one single Kanji. This method uses the individual parts of the Kanji to create an imaginitive story that you apply to one single Keyword. You may know about the 'radicals' of Chinese characters. It's similar to that, but not the exact same thing. This method, if one follows the book (don't stray off somewhere or skip anything), works wonders. It might not teach a single reading of the Kanji, but it keeps the shapes, meanings, and writing in your head very easily. I have no idea why it works, but it works. It took me 6-8 months to finish the first volume, and now I can recognize all the General Use Kanji with very little trouble. Just being able to associate

The second volume gets into the reading, but it spends practically all its time on the Chinese readings of the Kanji, again, using the individual parts of the Kanji to invoke certain pronunciations. It works very well, however, this system in Volume II applies only to about 1500 or so. The rest you have to learn by brute memory, really. However, because you already know what the meaning and shape of the Kanji is, it is *much* easier to memorize than attempting to learn the writing, meaning, shape, Chinese readings, and Japanese readings in all one go.

Anyway, good system. I recommend it if you want to really learn how to read Japanese.

well, Gin's suggestion is very good.
i'd try i out lol.

im a chinese and i understand most of the japanese kanjis because
i read chinese newspapers (the ones using old chinese text) so,
i can almost guess the meanings out of the kanjis itself ^^

i buy Bleach mangas to read, as you read, it will come naturally to you
when u want to read a kanji that has a few pronountiation.

Chinese is quite similar to Japanese IMO, good thing i learnt chinese.

yes, we chinese should be really grateful

it is easier for us to learn japanese cause kanji is written in chinese characters

thanks alot, Gin, it was big help

I very wanted to know, why there have to be katakana and hiragana? which one is use for japanese writing...and i learn a few sentence without knowing the word's character.

correct me if i'm wrong ok ?!

watashi wa Yui-chan daisuke ...lol
wakarimasu ka? watashi mo wakarimasen...lol
hai, watashi wa nihon-go ga mada jozu ja arimasen...lol

Both hiragana and katakana are used in Japanese writing. Katakana is used to write foreign words and emphasize things. Hiragana is the normal, Japanese script.

Very good. :)

Very good, again. :)

Um, I think this is wrong, though I can't tell exactly what's wrong unless I know what you're trying to say. I think you mean 'watashi no nihon-go ga...", but then again I could be wrong. :huh:

oo...sou ka? arigato gin! actually i wanted to say

hai, watashi wa nihon go ga wakarimasu demo mada jozu ja arimasen
( yes, i can understand japanese but i'm not skill yet )

correct me ok..

Okay, that's pretty good, but there's one thing:

You would say 'nihongo wo wakarimasu' instead of 'nihongo ga wakarimasu' in this case.

So the final sentence would be: 'Watashi wa nihongo wo wakarimasu kedo mada jouzu ja arimasen.'

Good? :)

domo arigato gin ! such an absolute lesson...u surely can speak well aren't u? i hope can be like u someday, thanx again....one more, is this correct

tokoro ( place ) ..... watashi no tokoro de ( at my place )

and...how to say 'i dont want to eat yet'.... is it ( mada tabetaku arimasen )

surely u can help

The meaning is slightly different, but both are ok が and を.
But が is more often used.

"watashi no tokoro de"
The phrase is incomplete but it's also ok.

When you use places, if you are not doing anything, just want to say that you are there, then you should use "ni". If you do something use "de".
Ex : koko ni iru (I am here), koko de aou (lets meet here), koko de taberu (i'll eat here)

And "watashi wa nihongo ga jouzu janai" is ok and "watashi no nihongo ..." is ok too. The meaning is, again, slightly different. The difference would be something like this:
かれ　の　にほんご　が　じょうず　"his japanese is good" and
かれ　は　にほんご　が　じょうず　"he is good in japanese"

Ah, got it. Thanks very much, bit. I'd suspected 'ga' could be used in this situation, but I wasn't quite sure, so I erred on the side of caution and went with 'wo.' I still have a lot to learn. ^_^

Gin, can u give some example showing katakana and hiragana character and is the letters like ABC ?

you can find it everywhere....i thought Gin posted it in the first page o_O?

It's been bugging me in the back of my mind for a while, so:

I know blue cat asked a while ago about YUI distinguishing between 'l' and 'r' and how she seems to pronounce the 'l' perfectly in Life, but in other songs she doesn't pronounce the R very well, often slipping into an L sound, such as in Merry-Go-Round and Ready to Love. I think the answer is this: the 'r' you're talking about, blue cat, isn't the English R.

The English R is made by rolling the tongue. When you pronounce an R by rolling your tongue and your mouth, creating a distinct, unique R sound. The Japanese R is not like that. It's made by touching the tongue on the roof of the mouth while pronouncing a slight, non-rolled Spanish R, which is also how the L sound is made. This causes the Japanese 'r' sound to become a cross between 'l' and a non-rolled 'r.' (In reality I think the Japanese R deserves its own symbol, and that's why I prefer the kana over romaji.)

Thus, it is much easier for a Japanese person to adjust and pronounce an 'l' sound, if they train themselves. Actually, they often slip into it in conversation. In reality, the Japanese R sounds so close to l that most Japanese, when learning English, don't even bother to learn how to pronounce L correctly. YUI doesn't really know how to pronounce the English R. She's playing with the Japanese R as best she can to mimic the English sounds. She isn't rolling her tongue, she's putting it on the roof of her mouth. That's why you've got 'Melly-Go-Lound' and 'Ready to Rabu' all getting mixed up. She probably trained herself to pronounce a clear 'Life' and Last Train, but didn't do so in Ready to Love and other songs. As for 'Melly-Go-Lound,' unless YUI immerses herself in an English-speaking environment or takes a really good English course, she's not really going to master the English R.

But it doesn't really matter. It's a non-issue, and just something I wanted to share with you. ^_^

In japanese, specially in songs, you can interchange L and R pronunciations. And also pronunciate something in english with english pronunciation, and then english with japanese pronunciation in the same song. It's totally normal. The singer decides which pronunciation use to make it rhyme or sound better, is not necessarily an issue or pronunciation problem.

It's like female singers using "boku", it doesn't mean necessarily that the singer is somewhat tomboy or even use this pronoun in a normal conversation, it just rhyme better in that song.

Thanks for sharing, Gin. It's nice to hear your thoughts about how "L's" and "R's" are often mixed up in Japanese. And it's not Japanese, but Korean too. :D

ね、bitさん。ひとつを聞きたいよ。この物にちょっと戸惑ってるよ。「－たら」対「－たなら」。差だのか？それとも同じだ？教えてくださいね。知りたいよ。

「たら」と「なら」の違いって…難しいこと聞きますね。ほとんどは同じ意味だよ。
うまく説明できないかも知れないけどやってみる。

・たら
仮定 (condition) Its a condition / suposition. simmilar to 「～ば」（行けば、買えば）
良かったらビール飲みませんか = 良しければ…

Also used as "when"
仕事が終わったら連絡してください (when you're job is finished, call me)

・なら
It also means condition but it is more affirmative (ok, its confusing, i know).

Also used when give advices or comments. Could be "so if you are going to do that, then..."
Ex: I'm talking about computers with a friend and then someone says: パソコンの事ならＧｉｎさんが良く知ってるよ (If its about computers, Gin knows a lot about them)

Some examples that could help:

例：
- フランスへ行ったらかばんを買って
- フランスへ行くならかばんを買って

I think you could translate both "if you go to France, buy a bag". But the meaning is sightly different.
The first one means "buy a bag in France" (maybe there are good bags in France).
And the second one is "buy a bag before you go". (you will need a bag if you are going to France)

- Ginさんなら出来るよ。 Someone is cheering Gin. Gin is doing or going to do something.
- Ginさんだったら出来るよ。 If there was Gin, he could do it. Gin is not there.

やっぱり難しいっスね…。ごめん、教科書とか読んだほうが良いとも。

Mmm, thanks. I sort've figured out the whole usage of 'nara' on my own. But I think you misunderstood my question. Hmm, lemme give you an example...

Say in 'Life,' when YUI sings

陽のあたる場所に出て
両手を広げてみたなら

I'm sort've confused on what the difference between the normal 'tara' and that 'ta nara' form is. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm not good at describing this things. :swt

頑張って上手く説明しようとしていたのに…orz

Anyway, yes, in that context the meaning is the same.

感謝します、bitさん。イライラしたらごめんなさい。 :swt

I LOVE japanese..
wish i could go to Japanese school, and learn Japanese from the beginning..
ur teaching is gewd...:)

gahh i suck all i know is aiueo,sa,shi,su,se,so,ga,ka,no,and me T_T@@!!

ooo forgot to say! You guys rock!!! ^^!! thanks for the Jap lessons!!!

:flyaway Ohhh!!! how long did it take you guys to be fluent in Japanese? -.-''!!!! :flyaway

teach some basic japanese sentences with romaji and kanji here! =D thx!

These Lessons are awesome!!!

I know a few japanese sentences and I would love to learn more!!!

I'm having trouble with the japanese characters... could you give me some tips in memorizing them?? I have a bad memory... to tell you... *LOL* And I don't know what to study first, Hiragana or Katakana? Wahhh...

Thanks a lot and I'm having so much fun learning japanese!!!
Hontou Arigatou!

i wish there was some korean teachings too?

oh well......

to remember, take many small pieces of paper and write all of them,
play wif them like cards lol, take it and read it,
do it a few times and wallah there u go u memorized them

@runaru i think its "hontou ni arigatou" correct me if im wrong lol