Book 1 Introduction

Japanese characters

1. Hiragana = To spell Japanese words
2. Katakana = To spell foreign words
3. Kanji = To represent entire words or names

Punctuation

• No uppercase/lowercase.
• No "?" character. か is placed at the end of the sentence instead.
• Period character is placed similar to English language: です。
• No spaces.

Pronunciation

1. Normal vowels

   a i u e o

2. Double vowels

   aa ii uu ei ee ou oo

3. Long vs Short sounds

   word	meaning	word	meaning
   ie	home	iie	no
   obasan	aunt	obaasan	grandmother
   ojisan	uncle	ojiisan	grandfather

4. Double consonants

   word	meaning	word	meaning
   roku	6	rokku	rock (music)
   uta	song	utta	sold
   mata	again	matta	waited

Counting

Basic Counting

Question: kyuu == きゅう, juu == じゅう. How? Why?

Because "small yu" changes the sound when followed by a vowel. "small yu" eats the vowel, if it follows any.

Hence, きゅう == ki + yu + u == kyuu.

Similarly, じゅう == ji + yu + u == jyuu == juu.

Why multiple versions?

• Sometimes v1 is to be used instead of v2.
• Sometimes personal preferences.
• Sometimes cultural reasons:
  • shi == death
  • ku == suffering
  • So 4 and 9 are considered unlucky.

Teens

Tens

Tens + Singles

Hundreds

• hyaku is used.
• Similar pattern, but some variations.

Thousands

• sen is used.
• Similar pattern, but some variations.

Some examples