!Under Construction!

    The first thing you have to learn about Japanese is it's pronunciation. Don't worry about the kana, it will come to you in time. The American phonetics will be used in this website, you can see them aside to the kana. But don't get to cocky, American phonetic writing of Japanese still requires some expertise. But anyways its not translating Japanese for you! However, you need this if you want to go any further. Your Japanese-learning program probably insisted on this, but here is an helpful summary:

-1-    First, letters alone are said like if they were in a syllable. Also the sounds, basically are slightly different. In English transcription a "a" is always pronounced like in "cat" and never like in "fatal". The "i", like in "kit". The "e" has always the sound of "karate" and never like "ridge". And the "o" like in "code".

-2-    Be careful when you see a "r". The sound noted as "r" in American transcription is in fact more like a "l" sound. Or rather, its between "r" and "l". In fact, its not a full "L" sound and really not a plain "R" sound. Its a light mix of both, making it sound like a smooth, little "r". So if you end up saying: «RRRrroll up the RRRrrim to win!» to a Japanese, the poor guy might think you come from another planet.

-3-    You will have no problems with the "sh" since its the same in "shhh". What is written "ch", though, is a little more complex. For example chu, like for peach, as you might know, is said like pi-ka-tchu (adding a little "t" sound). Its really nothing, and you'll get used to it.

-4-    The "n" in Japanese, is a sound that can be put alone, on a single kana. ん is a common terminology and follows other kana to make a "n" sound after them. For example: "kan" is ka-n, but not just "can", rather can-n It is important that you pronounce the kana alone; unlike English words that flow and make combinations, Japanese pronunciation makes it more simple and the only rules are seen here.

-5-    What is indicated as "u" in the official transcription is much like in English : "yu" is pronounced like "you". But "u" can be really tricky sometimes, and very often it is not pronounced at all. For example: "de su  ka" is said dess' ka. You should say: "Desk"-a.

-6-    You find also, many times, a double consonant. "tte" for example (って). Double consonants like this one is simply a "te" preceded by a small "tsu" (see SPECIAL) which is repeating the following sound (just the beginning of it, and in that case, the "t" sound). So every time you see a small tsu, or a double consonant, you really pronounce the consonant. To better understand this, lets see an example:    "katta" would sound like cat-ta, because there has be a distinction between two sounds. In other cases, the repeated consonant is more complex. "sshi" (a small tsu and shi) would be, in fact sh-shi, literally pronouncing the "sh" two times.

-7-    In the other direction, the ending sound of a kana can also be repeated. For that, the う ("u" hiragana, see SPECIAL) and a double vowel is used. For example: "shoo" can be said sho-o, always saying distinctively both sounds. Tokyo, is in fact "Tôkyô", as seen on some maps. So now you know it must be pronounced Tookyoo.