The 32 Elemental Sounds of Japanese
- LECTURES
- DRILLS
- AMA
Everything we say in Japanese is made from a combination of the sounds below. It is very often the case that you will confuse one sound with another, and this will hinder your ability to speak and understand Japanese.
For each possible sound, we review how it is made in the speech organ and how it sounds. To help you tune your ear to a specific sound, I have provided word lists for you to download and listen to closely.
For best experience on mobile, tilt your device horizontally.
| Easy Vowels | /ä/ | /e̞/ | /i/ | /o̞/ | |
| Tricky Vowels | /ɯ/ | /ʉ/ | |||
| Bilabial Consonants | /m/ | /p/ | /b/ | ||
| Alveolar Consonants | /t/ | /d/ | /n/ | /s/ | /z/ |
| Palatal & Velar Consonants | /j/ | /k/ | /g/ | /w/ | |
| Nasal & Glottal Consonants | /ŋ/ | /N/ | /h/ | ||
| Tricky Palatal Consonants | /ɕ/ | /#/ | /%/ | /ç/ | |
| Tricky Alveolar Consonants | /t͡s/ | /d͡z/ | /&/ | ||
| Tricky “Soft” Consonants | /β/ | /ɸ/ | /ɣ/ | ||
| Tricky Glottal Consonants | /ʔ/ |
More Resources
Note: Best used with a laptop
