First of all, take a look at the hiragana chart below.  It has the alphabet letters for the vowel sounds down the left-hand side (rows) and the consonant forming the first sound + a vowel on the top (columns).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, the first column from the left (going down) is "a, i, u, e, o".

The second column from the left would read "ka, ki, ku, ke, ko".

The third column from the left would read "sa, shi, su, se, so".

The fourth column "ta, chi, tsu, te, to".

The fifth column "na, ni, nu, ne, no".

The sixth column "ha, hi, fu, he, ho".

The seventh column "ma, mi, mu, me, mo".

The eighth column "ya...yu...yo" - notice there is nothing in the "i" or "e" row.

The ninth column "ra, ri, ru, re, ro".

The tenth column "wa.........wo/o".

The final character is "n".

 

 The ten-ten゛and the maru°

 

If you have been keenly following you will probably be wondering why, or how there is a "do" in Nintendo, or a "ju" in jūdō, or even why I am puting those funny lines above the u or o (I'll get back to that one later).

 

There are certain columns on the hiragana chart that have a ten-ten placed above the top right-hand side, similar to inverted commas.  When this is done, it changes the sound of the consonant before the vowel sound.

e.g.  か ka　　が  ga  

 

The columns that have this are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the maru° sound is only used with the "H" column and changes it to a "P" sound.

 

When learning the changes in sound, it is a good idea to come up with a mnemonic, or something similar, to help you remember it.  I'm not sure where it originated, but I like the following:

KinG  SiZed  ToaDs  HoBble  HaPpily

So the "K" column changes to a "G", "S" to a "Z" and so on.

 

Blended Sounds (Combination Sounds)

 

Unfortunately, it does not end there.  We shouldn't complain though - think of the multitude of English sounds, regular and irregular.

 

I have made a YouTube video to help you understand these ones.  I hope it helps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Double Consonants and Long Vowel Sounds

 

Nearly there.  

Ok, sometimes you see a double consonant in Japanese e.g. Nissan.  The pronunciation of these is a little tricky, as well as the way it is written.  It is written as にっさん and is pronounced ni...ssan, as if you are pausing on the "s" for half a second and then letting go.  So, the word for "more", もっと would be holding on to the (look at the chart above)?  That's right, the "t" from "to".   When written, what do you notice is different?  Yep, right again.  There is a small つ before the consonant that is held.  

 

In rōmaji, you will sometimes see a line above an "o" or "u" vowel sound.  This denotes a long (drawn out) sound.  In fact in the word rōmaji it exists as well.  If this were written out in full, it would be "ro o ma ji".  In most cases though, if the "o" has a line above it, there is actually an "u" sound after the "o".  Basically it is the same sound as another "o".  If there is a line above a "u" sound, then it is another "u".  Sounds confusing?  Here are some examples:

べんきょう   =  benkyou  =  benkyō  = study

れんしゅう   =  renshuu  =  renshū  = practice

 

The best examples come from place names though, particularly Tokyo and Kyoto.  Tokyo is supposed to be written as Tōkyō, because it is actually toukyou.  This is what you would see at the train station (pictured left).  Likewise with Kyoto.  It is actually Kyōto, or kyouto (pictured left).  

 

Since these two cities are hugely popular tourist destinations, it is quite common to see it written in the easiest form (without the lines above the o).

 

It is a common misconception that Kyoto is just the reverse of Tokyo.  Well, now you should be capable of proving them wrong based on how the names are written in rōmaji at least.  It is much more interesting than that though.  Look at the kanji.  They share the same kanji 京 kyou, which means capital city.  Kyoto was the capital city of Japan for more than 1000 years.  It was commonly referred to as only 京  but the final kanji 都 denotes it as a "metropolis" or "city".  Tokyo, on the other hand, is a modern name.  It was fomerly known as Edo and was renamed around 1868 when the age of the samurai ended and the Emperor (Meiji) relocated from Kyoto.  It is literally translated as the "Eastern Capital"