Lesson 1 - Vowels

First of all, each vowel is always said in the same way.

Sometimes, you'll see the same vowel in a row (e.g. uu). This means that the sound is twice as long as a single vowel.

The order of the vowels, in japanese: a - i - u - e - o

Vowels:
あ "a" - pronounced as in Kawasaki, Ah!
い "i" - pronounced as in eat, kimono
う "u" - pronounced as in sumoo, boot
え  "e" - pronounced as in zen, men
お "o" - pronounced as in Hiroshima, open

There are a few cases where the vowel sound almost disappears - devoiced vowels.

The vowels i and u tend to be dropped/whispered, usually when they're between consonants like p, t, k, ch, ts, h or when they're at the end of a word.

Example: "desu", sounds like "des" ; "yoshi!", sounds like "yosh!"