Tuesday, 11 January 2011

Hiragana: Lesson 46 - ‘ん’ [n]

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Pronunciation:
‘ん’ is romanized ‘n’, pronounced ‘n’ as in ‘man’.

Words with ‘ん’:
‘ ん’ in the middle: 

  • 信じる/しじる (shinjiru - to believe; to believe in; to place trust in; to confide in; to have faith in)

Hiragana: Lesson 45 - ‘を’ [wo]

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Pronunciation:
‘を’ is romanized ‘wo’, pronounced ‘wo’ as in ‘won’.

It is transliterated variably as <o> or <wo>, with the former being faithful to standard pronunciation but the latter avoiding confusion with お and オ.

Hiragana: Lesson 44 - ‘わ’ [wa]

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Pronunciation:
‘わ’ is romanized ‘wa’.

Words with ‘わ’:
‘わ’ at the beginning:

  • 悪い/るい (warui -> bad; poor; inferior; evil; sinful; unprofitable; unbeneficial; at fault; to blame; in the wrong; sorry)
  • 笑い/らい (warai -> laugh; laughter; smile; sneer)
  • 笑う/らう (warau -> to laugh; to smile; to sneer; to ridicule)
  • 若/か (waka -> youth; child (esp. of the young son of someone of high social standing))
  • 分かる/かる (wakaru -> to be understood; to be comprehended; to be grasped; to become clear; to be known; to be discovered; to be realized; to be realised; to be found out)

Monday, 10 January 2011

Hiragana: Lesson 43 - ‘ろ’ [ro]

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Pronunciation:
‘ろ’ is romanized ‘ro’ and pronounced ‘ro’ as in ‘rock’.

Words with ‘ろ’:
‘ ろ’ at the beginning:

  • 6/く (roku -> (num) six))
  • 6月/くがつ (rokugatsu -> June)
  • ろう引き/うびき (roubiki -> waxing)
  • ろう者/うしゃ (rousha -> deaf person)
  • ろくろ師/くろし (rokuroshi -> turner; thrower)
  • 路上/じょう (rojou -> (on the) road; (on the) way)
  • 露国/こく (rokoku -> Russia)

Hiragana: Lesson 42 - ‘れ’ [RE]

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Pronunciation:
‘れ’ is romanized ‘RE’.

Words with ‘れ’:
‘れ’ at the beginning:

  • 霊 / い (rei -> spirit; soul)
  • 0 / い (rei -> zero)
  • 歴史 / きし (rekishi -> history)
  • 隷属 / いぞく (reizoku -> fridge)