What is N in Japanese hiragana?

Contents

• 1 The Muddied Sounds
• 2 The Small 「や」、「ゆ」、and 「よ」
• 3 The Small 「つ」
• 4 The Long Vowel Sound

かっぷ (kap-pu)

cup

The Long Vowel Sound

Whew! Youre almost done. In this last portion, we will go over the long vowel sound which is simply extending the duration of a vowel sound. You can extend the vowel sound of a character by adding either 「あ」、「い」、or 「う」 depending on the vowel in accordance to the following chart.

For example, if you wanted to create an extended vowel sound from 「か」, you would add 「あ」 to create 「かあ」. Other examples would include: 「き きい」, 「く くう」, 「け けい」, 「こ こう」, 「さ さあ」 and so on. The reasoning for this is quite simple. Try saying 「か」 and 「あ」 separately. Then say them in succession as fast as you can. Youll notice that soon enough, it sounds like youre dragging out the / ka / for a longer duration than just saying / ka / by itself. When pronouncing long vowel sounds, try to remember that they are really two sounds merged together.

Its important to make sure you hold the vowel sound long enough because you can be saying things like here （ここ） instead of high school （こうこう） or middle-aged lady （おばさん） instead of grandmother （おばあさん） if you dont stretch it out correctly!

Examples

1. がくせい (ga-ku-se)
   
   student
2. せんせい (sen-se)
   
   teacher
3. きょう (kyo)
   
   today
4. おはよう (o-ha-yo)
   
   good morning
5. おかあさん (o-ka-san)
   
   mother

There are rare exceptions where an / e / vowel sound is extended by adding 「え」 or an / o / vowel sound is extended by 「お」. Some examples of this include 「おねえさん」、「おおい」、and 「おおきい」. Pay careful attention to these exceptions but dont worry, there arent too many of them.