Lesson 6 - Vocabulary:
Taxis
(photo
by hans-johnson used
under terms of Creative Commons license.)
The system of writing Japanese used in this course is called the Hepburn system. Pronunciation of most of the letters presents no difficulty to an American. Those letters or combinations of letters considered difficult to pronounce will be explained in this section of the lessons.
In this lesson you may have difficulty with the following:
1. When double letters appear in a Japanese word, as in Sannō, the sound is repeated. Think of double letters as having a hyphen between them and pronounce both letters distinctly. Listen:
San-nō
2. The letters marked with a bar: ē, ī, ō, and ū, are pronounced longer than ones without a bar.
Listen:
Mēji |
ī |
Kōen |
kyūjō |
Jingū |
3. When i and u are written with a slash mark through them, they are slurred, or barely pronounced. Listen:
Ak |
Kok |
Kōrak |
sh |
4. The letter g in the middle of a word is pronounced like the ng in "sing" by natives of Tokyo. Listen:
O-negai
shimasu.
|
|
Ueno Kōen |
|
Kok |
the Kokusai
Theater |
Sannō Hoteru |
the Sanno
Hotel |
Kōrak |
|
Kyūjō |
the |
Mēji Jingū |
the Meiji
Shrine |
Ak |
the Electronics District |
|
the |
o-negai
shimas |
please
|
Sannō
Hoteru o-negai shimas |
the Sanno
Hotel, please |
koko |
here; this
place |
soko |
there; that
place |
asoko |
over there;
that place over
there |
doko? |
where?; what
place? |
koko
o-negai shimas |
(take me
to) this place,
please |
des |
is; was |
des |
is it?/was
it? |
des |
isn't it?/wasn't
it? |
Kōrak |
was that
Paradise Park Stadium? |
koko
des |
is this
the place?
|
Ginza
Yon-chōme des |
that was
the |
koko
des |
this is
the place
|
e? |
huh? |
e?
Kok |
huh? was
that the Kokusai Theater? |
doko
des |
where is
it?/where to? |
e?
doko des |
huh? where's
that? / huh? where
was that? |
nan
des |
what
is it? |
e?
nan
des |
huh? what's
that? / huh? what
was that? |
koko de
ī des |
this (place)
is okay
|
koko
de ī des |
is this
(place) okay?
|
hai |
yes; yes sir ;
yes, ma'am
|
īe |
no |
īe, asoko
des |
no,
that's the place
over there
|
dame |
no! |
dame, dame
|
no! no! |
dame des |
no! |
dōmo |
thanks |