The first step is to learn the alphabet. Or, at least, the sounds that exist in the Japanese language. There are absolutely no “tones” like in Chinese, Thai, etc. and there are only 2 exceptions within the alphabet which will be explained later. The characters listed below are called 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.

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”.

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

Combinations きゃ kya きゅ kyu きょ kyo ぎゃ gya ぎゅ gyu ぎょ gyo しゃ sha しゅ shu しょ sho じゃ ja じゅ ju じょ jo ちゃ cha ちゅ chu ちょ cho にゃ nya にゅ nyu にょ nyo ひゃ hya ひゅ hyu ひょ hyo びゃ bya びゅ byu びょ byo ぴゃ pya ぴゅ pyu ぴょ pyo みゃ mya みゅ myu みょ myo りゃ rya りゅ ryu りょ ryo

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.

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