You try your hand at Japanese at the ramen shop, and ask for “plain” ramen…but your bowl comes back covered in clams! Turns our you asked for asari (“clams”); when you meant assari (“plain”).
in Japanese, sometimes you will see double consonants in the middle of a word, like (kk, ss, tt, cc, etc.). Here, you need to pause in the middle as we take extra time to pronounce double constanents.
As with the example of “asari” and “assari”, the double consonants can really change the meaning of words, so it is key to not overlook them.
Did you know about these very similar sounding words?
にし (nishi)“west” and にっし (nisshi) “daily report
スパイ (supai) “spy” and すっぱい (suppai) “sour”
かた (kata) “shoulder” and かった (katta) “won”
in what may seem strange to English speakers, in Japanese sometimes you will encounter a double “n” sound.
This can be observed in the case of : おんな(on’na), which means “woman”
Again, the extra “n” DOES make a difference! For example, don’t confuse:
こんな (konna) “this kind of” and こな (kona) “powder”
ほんね (honne) “true feelings” and ほね (hone) “bone”
As you can see, it is important to say attention to those little details. Otherwise, you might end up talking to your doctor about your feelings, and to your shrink about that pain in your backbone!
