In romaji, minimal unit of Japanese sound represented by “one consonant + one vowel.” For example, “sumimasen. (不好意思。)” has five units, “su,” “mi,” “ma,” “se” and “n.” --- “n” is the only consonant that can make a unit of sound. Other consonants must be followed by one vowel and must be pronounced with it.

Vowels, on the other hand, can make a unit of sound by itself. For example, “ otealai (洗手間)” also has five units, “o,” “te,” “a,” “la” and “i.”

Among those five units, you see three independent vowels, “o”, “a,” “i,” and each makes one unit. They have to be pronounced separately from sound before/after it.

Reading each vowel clearly helps your Japanese sound more native-like.

在此課程中使用的羅馬拚音，其表示日語發音最小音節的寫法為“子音+母音”。例如，“sumimasen（不好意思）”，包含了五個音節，“su”、“mi”、“ma”、“se”、“n”

子音：“n”是唯一可以單獨成為一個音節的子音，其餘子音後面接著一個母音，並一起發音。

母音：母音則可以使單獨成為一個音節。例如，“otealai（洗手間）”中也有五個音節，“o”、“te”、“a”、“la”、“i”，在這五個音節，你看到三個獨立的母音，“o”、“a”、“i”，每個母音自成一音節，並且音節與音節之間必須明顯地分開發音。

把每個母音音節清晰地分別念出來，可幫助您的日語發音更道地。