The most commonly occuring vowel correspondences are as follows.

Japanese Corresponds to the English

vowel or diphthong of:

i 'sit' (or 'seat')

ii 'seed'
u 'look' (or 'Luke')
uu 'mood'
e 'let' (or 'late')
ee or ei 'laid'
o 'cot' (or 'coat')
oo 'mode' or 'Maud'
ou 'mode'
oi 'boy'
a 'pat' or 'pad' or 'putt'
aa 'ma'
ai 'my'
au or ao 'cow'

Kana Romaji Pronunciation Example

A "ah" Soft A sound, as the "a" in "father."

I "ee" Long E sound, as the "ee" in "meet."

U "oo" Double O sound, as the "oo" in "boot."

E "eh" Short E or long A sound, as the "e" in "met." It

sometimes sounds like a "y" is in front of it-- "ye."

O "oh" Long O sound, as the "o" in "boat."

Note: Japanese vowels do not have diphthongs. That is, the vowels don't round off into
a consonant. ? and ? do not have a "y" sound afterwards, like similar sounds do in
English. ? and ? do not have a "w" sound afterwards either. It's purely the vowel.
KA "kah" "Ca" in "cause"

KI "kee" "Key"

KU "koo" "Coo"

KE "keh" "Ke" in "ketchup"

KO "koh" "Co" in "Coat"

SA "sah" "Saw"

SHI "shee" "She"

SU "soo" "Sue"

SE "seh" "Se" in "set"

SO "soh" "So"

TA "tah" "Ta" in "tall"

CHI "chee" "Che" in "cheat"

TSU "tsoo" "Tzu" in "Shih Tzu"

TE "teh" "Te" in "tell"

TO "toh" "Toe"

NA "nah" "No" in "not"

NI "nee" "Knee"
NU "noo" "New"

NE "neh" "Ne" in "net"

NO "noh" "No"

HA "hah" "Ha" in "haunt"

HI "hee" "He"

FU "foo" This letter is produced by blowing through circular

lips. It can be either "fu" or "hu."

HE "heh" "He" in "head"

HO "hoh" "Hoe"

MA "mah" "Ma" in "mall"

MI "mee" "Me"

MU "moo" "Moo" in "mood"

ME "meh" "Me" in "met"

MO "moh" "Mo" in "most"

YA "yah" "Ya" in "yacht"

YU "yoo" "You"

YO "yoh" "Yo" in "yoke"

 RA "rah"

RI "ree"

RU "roo"

RE "reh"

RO "roh"

Note: This set is tricky. It's not like the English R. It is pronounced by pressing the
tongue to the top of the mouth like L. However, the tongue should touch a little further
back in the mouth than L. When you say the Japanese R, only touch the very tip of your
tounge to the top of the mouth (unlike L, where you touch your a big part of the tongue
to the top of the mouth). You can add a little flick to it to make it sound a little bit like the
English D, especially when you are talking fast.

WA "wa" "Wa" in "want"

(W)O "(w)o" This can be pronounced or spelled as either "wo"

as in "won't" or "o" as in "oat."

N "n" This can sound like the English N. Sometimes it's a

little softer and nasalized, like the nasalized N in
French. When it precedes an M, B or P sound, it
sounds like M (because the mouth is about to be
closed in those letters).

DERIVATIVE LETTERS

In Japanese, you can add marks to make a letter sound differently. If you put two

marks ("ten ten") in the upper right corner of K, S, T, or H sounds, you can change their
pronunciation to G, Z, D, or B, respectively. Also, you can put a small circle ("maruten")

in the upper right corner of an H sound only to get the P sound.

Kan Romaji Pronunciatio Example
a n

GA "gah" "Ga" in "gallbladder"

GI "gee" "Gee" in "geese"

GU "goo" "Goo" in "goon"

GE "geh" "Ge" in "get"

GO "goh" "Go"

Note: The Japanese G can sound like the English G. However, it sometimes
has an "NG" sound, as in "sing."

ZA "zah" "Zo" in "zombie"

JI "jee" "Ge" in "genious." This sounds like J, not

Z.

ZU "zoo" "Zoo"

ZE "zeh" "Ze" in "zest"

ZO "zoh" "Zo" in "zone"

DA "dah" "Da" in "daunting"

JI (DZI) "jee" "Ge" in "genious." This letter isn't really

used much because ? is usually used for
J sounds.

ZU "zoo" "Zoo." ? is usually used instead for zoo

(DZU) sounds. However, ? is used, especially
when repeating the "tsu" letter.

DE "deh" "De" in "dent"

DO "doh" "Dough"

BA "bah" "Ba" in "ball"

 Tips

The hiragana syllabary is used to write word endings and japanese words,

replacing the kanji if the kanji is not widely known or the readers are children. It can also

be used alongside kanji to indicate its pronunciation.

The katakana syllabary is used to write words loaned from a foreign

language, as well as all foreign names and onomatopoeia. It can also be use for

emphasis, as equivalent to bold or italic text in english.

Consonants are pronounced like the English letter sound, except for 'R' which is

pronounced between an 'L' and an 'R'.

The Japanese R is pronounced by pressing the tongue to the top of the mouth like

L. However, the tongue should touch a little further back in the mouth than L. When you

say the Japanese R, only touch the very tip of your tongue to the top of the mouth (unlike

L, where you touch your a big part of the tongue to the top of the mouth).

Japanese vowels are pronounced briefly, except for long vowels.

The vowels i and u are often silent or barely pronounced in most japanese

words, especially when they are located at the end of certain verbs. It is also the case of

the vowel "u" that follows the consonant "s". For example, "arimasu" (there is) is

pronounced "ah-ree-mas", "deshita" (was) is pronounced "deh-shtah", and "suki" (to like)

is pronounced "skee".

When , and are used as sentence particules, they are respectively

pronounced wa("wah"), o ("oh") and e ("eh").

In katakana, the character is used to double the vowel of the preceding

character. For instance, the word "game" uses katakana characters for being a foreign

word, and is written "" : "geemu" (the final u is barely pronounced).

Practice makes perfect!

Don't say the characters in your head, say them out loud so you can get more

speaking practice.
 Do not worry about getting a 'Japanese accent'. Learning the language is the first

step.

Even if you know the pronunciations, a little extra practice everyday still helps a lot.

So just quickly go over the characters and then onto your other Japanese studies.

If you're going to Japan, take some time out to learn about their body/hand

gestures too! Actions speak louder than words and some body/hand gestures that are

okay in your country may not be okay or polite in Japan. If you do something that does

offend someone, just apologize to them.

An easy way to memorize the pronounciations of the vowels: "fAther's elite attitude

gets old."

An alternate mnemonic is "Ah, we soon get old" A I U E O

For the pronunciation of kanji, you will have to refer to a dictionary, especially since

most kanji can be spelled of different ways.