About IsshoNihongo!

Contact IsshoNihongo!

Japanese-Logo-1-1-1-1-1-2-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.png

Syllables & Morae

Syllables

In English, we can break down words into sound chunks that we call syllables. The word Tōkyō has 2 syllables while the word kyō (meaning “today”) has only 1. The thing you should know is that Japanese does not have syllables. It has absolutely no meaning in the language. Well if that’s the case, then how do they break down words? The answer is morae.

Morae

In Japanese a mora is one unit of sound. The word Tōkyō is actually 4 morae. The best way to see morae is to write a word in Hiragana (or Katakana). Tōkyō would be written as とうきょう and each character counts as 1 mora. Note that きょ is counted as a single mora.

Conclusion

Rice & Peace! 👋🏾

-AL