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	Japanese Sounds in Romaji This page explains how to write the 69 basic sounds of Japanese in romaji. The following table contains the basic sounds along with the 33 combination sounds. Japanese Sounds Written in Romaji Consonants Vowels n w r y m h n t s k n wa ra ya ma ha wa na ta sa ka a a ri mi hi ni chi shi ki i i ru yu mu fu nu tsu su ku u u re me he e ne te se ke e e wo ro yo mo ho no to so ko o o b d z g ba da za ga a bi ji gi i bu zu gu u be de ze ge e bo do zo go o p pa a pi i pu u pe e po o Combination Japanese Sounds r m h n ch sh k rya mya hya nya cha sha kya ya ryu myu hyu nyu chu shu kyu yu ryo myo hyo nyo cho sho kyo yo b j g bya jya gya ya byu jyu gyu yu byo jyo gyo yo p pya ya pyu yu pyo yo Reading order - the table above should be read in the following order. read the table from top to bottom and then from right to left a  i  u  e  o .... ka  ki  ku  ke  ko .... etc. read the ya, yu, yo combination sounds from top to bottom and then from right to left ya  yu  yo .... kya  kyu  kyo .... sha  shu  sho .... etc. Basic Japanese sounds - the basic Japanese sounds, written here in romaji, are formed by combining a consonant with a vowel. a few examples of forming Japanese sounds k  +  a  =  ka n  +  u  =  nu r  +  o  =  ro w  +  a  =  wa Combination Japanese sounds - the combination Japanese sounds, written here in romaji, are formed with a consonant and either ya, yu, or yo. the combination Japanese sounds are formed with either ya, yu, yo, and a consonant k  +  ya  =  kya n  +  yu  =  nyu Exceptions - there are exceptions to the pronunciation of Japanese sounds, 7 for the basic sounds and 9 for the combination sounds. All exceptions are shown in the gray areas of the table. shi, chi, tsu, and ji are exceptions to the basic pronunciation pattern tsu  is pronounced as in the Japanese word  tsunami hu is only pronounced as hoo in hoop, however, fu is used when typing on a keyboard to get the hiragana, katakana, and kanji equivalent of the sound hu. For example, Japanese people pronounce France as huransu, but type furansu when typing it on a keyboard. ha can also be pronounced as wa he can also be used as e sha, shu, sho, cha, chu, and cho all pronounce the "y" sound but drop the "y" when writing in romaji Sound equivalents - each sound written in romaji has written hiragana and katakana equivalents. example of sound written in romaji, hiragana, and katakana sound bop = romaji a = hiragana あ = katakana ア Conversation examples - using romaji, you can easily begin communicating in Japanese conversation examples written in romaji and Japanese Good afternoon. (hello) ko + n + ni + chi + wa = Konnichi wa. こんにちは。 How are you? o + ge + n + ki + de + su + ka = Ogenki desu ka? お元気ですか。 Fine, thank you. ge + n + ki + de + su = Genki desu. 元気です。 How about you? a + na + ta + wa = Anata wa? あなたは。 Goodbye. (long-term) sa + yo + u + na + ra = Sayounara. さようなら。