JAPANESE PRONUNCIATION

Guide to Japanese Pronunciation
Japanese is not a tonal language like Chinese or Thai, and is comparatively easy to pronounce.

[Japanese Pronunciation Vowels
Japanese has both short and long vowels and the distinction is often important. In romanized Japanese, long vowels are marked with a macron, so that ō represents "long O".

Japanese characters (ひらがな) a i u e 0
あいうえお
k かきくけこ
s さしすせそ
t た (ち) (つ) てと
n なにぬねの
h はひふへほ
m まみむめも
y やゆよ
r らりるれろ
w わを
ん (n)
g がぎぐげご
z ざじずぜぞ
d だ (ぢ) (づ) でど
b ばびぶべぼ
p ぱぴぷぺぽ
ky きゃ　きゅ　きょ
sy しゃ　しゅ　しょ
ty (ちゃ) 　 (ちゅ) 　（ちょ）
hy ひゃ　ひゅ　ひょ
gy ぎゃ　ぎゅ　ぎょ
zy じゃ　じゅ　じょ
by びゃ　びゅ　びょ
ch ちゃちちゅ　ちょ
j じゃじじゅ　じょ
sh しゃししゅ　しょ
ts 　　つ　
f 　　ふ　　

a あ/ア
like 'a' in "father"
i い/イ
like 'i' in "machine"
u う/ウ
like 'oo' in "hoop"
e え/エ
like 'e' in "set"
o お/オ
like 'o' in "rope"
n ん/ン
short 'n' at the end of a syllable, pronounced as 'm' before 'b', 'p' or 'm'.
Note that "u" is often weak at the end of syllables. In particular, the common endings -desu and -masu are pronounced as "des'" and "mas'" respectively.