Once you become familiar with the pronunciation of Japanese syllables, reading Japanese words spelled in Roman letters will be a snap. Japanese vowels always make the same sound. If you have any experience with speaking or studying Spanish, you will find Japanese vowels to be identical to Spanish vowels. The rolled r sound in Spanish can also be used as a guide in pronouncing the Japanese r + vowel combinations.

The Hepburn method of writing Japanese in Roman letters was developed with Westerners in mind. It is written so that English speakers can easily pronounce Japanese sounds properly. The following table presents a list of basic sounds in the Japanese language. Vowel sounds are accompanied by English equivalents to clarify pronunciation. Consonants are pronounced as in English, with the exception of r. When reading ra, ri, ru, re, ro, try touching the roof of your mouth with your tongue at the beginning of the sound. The result should be similar to a d sound (e.g., da), or to the rolled r sound in Spanish. Also, ga, gi, gu, ge, go are pronounced with a hard g as in “good.”

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Guide to Pronunciation of Japanese Sounds

Consonant-Vowel Combinations

Consonant-Vowel Variations

It should be noted that ga, gi, gu, ge, go are considered the “hard cousins” of ka, ki, ku, ke, ko. When writing in hiragana, ga, gi, gu, ge, go are written with the same characters for ka, ki, ku, ke, ko with the addition of two short dashes on the upper-right-hand side of each character. The same is true for sa, shi, su, se, so and za, ji, zu, ze, zo; as well as, ta, chi, tsu, te, to and da, ji, zu, de, do. Ha, he, fu, he, ho has two sets of variations in ba, bi, bu, be, bo and pa, pi, pu, pe, po. The “b” sounds are indicated by two short dashes to the upper-right side of the appropriate “h” character, while “p” versions can be identified by a small circle in the upper-right-hand corner.