Extended sounds

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Extended sounds

In this lesson you will learn about Japanese extended sounds - when the vowel is voiced longer.

Japanese extended sounds are marked in hiragana with an extra u, う, or i, い, after the character to be extended. In katakana it is marked by a line looking like a hyphen. The result is that the vowel before is voiced longer.

Listen to and compare the sounds in the following table of examples, going from left to right, one row at a time.

おばさん	おばあさん
obasan	obaasan
Aunt	Grandmother


おじさん	おじいさん
ojisan	ojiisan
Uncle	Grandfather


ビル	ビール
biru	biiru
Building	Beer


来て	聞いて
kite	kiite
Come! (-te form or order form)	listen! (-te form or order form)


地図	チーズ
chizu	chiizu
Map	Cheese


好き	スキー
suki	sukii
To love	To ski


主	週
shu *	shuu
Main thing, lord	Week (as in raishuu, next week)


沖	大きい
oki	ookii
Hill	Big


鳥	通り
tori	toori
Bird	street


掘る	ホール
horu	hooru
Dig	Hall

Comments (5)

can u please add more words here? hihi ;)

這裡只有我是中國人喲

ii no renshu!

I can tell this is where I'll messup a lot. Thank you for your wonderful examples!

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