16 June 2015

Counting up to 10 in Japanese - cheat sheet

For native English speakers this is my best proximate pronunciation of one to ten in Japanese.

1 - itch
2 - knee
3 - sun
4 - she
5 - go
6 - lock*
7 - hitch**
8 - hatch
9 - queue
10 - Jew

*6 - although it writes 'roku' in Japanese, I'd strongly suggest ALL the written 'R' in Japanese to be pronounced as 'L'. Even if the English speaker feel it's not exactly the same as how the native Japanese say, pronouncing all the written 'R' as 'L' is way better because it sounds a lot more natural to the native Japanese speaker.

 **7 - to be precise it's 'sheech/shitch' but many native Japanese pronounce it as 'hitch' too. 7 also can be pronounced as 'na-na' and both are correct, but 'hitch/sheech/shitch' is more common.

4 - can be pronounced as 'yon' and both are correct, but 'she' is more common.

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