Learn why the hiragana U (う) is used to extend an O sound?
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| Hi everybody! Hiroko here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher where I’ll answer some of *your* most common Japanese questions. |
| The question for this lesson is… |
| Why is the hiragana ‘U/う’ used to extend an O sound? |
| You might have been puzzled by the way certain words are spelled in Japanese. For example, the word for ‘Good Morning’ is spelled お-は-よ-う, but the actual sound is ‘Ohayō.’ The last two syllables, ‘よ’ and ‘う’ aren’t pronounced as ‘よ-う’ but as ‘よー’ with a long vowel ‘おお’ at the end. |
| So what’s going on with this? |
| The long vowel 'ō/おー’ is pronounced for twice as long as the short お. There are two combinations to make this long vowel: which are two of the hiragana "お" characters in a row, and a character ending in an お sound -- such as こ or と -- plus an う. |
| For example, おおきい is pronounced with the long vowel おーbecause it has two お sounds at the beginning. おはよう is also pronounced as "ohayō" with the long vowel "おー" because the last two syllables, “o” sound in ‘よ/yo’ and its following “u/う’ makes a long vowel “ō.” |
| Any character with an お sound can be extended in this way by following it with an う. |
| For example,あ-り-が-と-う meaning "Thank you." becomes ‘Arigatō’. How about とーうーきょーう? It becomes ‘Tōkyō.’ In this word the う is used to extend two syllables. |
| Just remember, even though you can lengthen an お sound with another お *or* a う, a う character will be used most of the time. Knowing this, you’ll be able to make a good guess, but just like English you need to learn the correct spelling of a word. |
| How was it? |
| I hope this makes sense to you and you’re able to read the long ‘o’ sounds correctly from now on! |
| Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them! |
| またね！ |
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