Learn Pitch Accent
Master the melody of Japanese. Start with the fundamentals and build your way up.
What are Moras?
拍とは
Understanding the rhythmic units of Japanese - different from syllables!
The 4 Pitch Patterns
4つのアクセント型
Heiban, Atamadaka, Nakadaka, Odaka - the building blocks of Japanese melody.
Particles & Pitch
Coming Soon助詞とアクセント
How particles inherit pitch from the words they follow.
Compound Words
Coming Soon複合語
How pitch changes when words combine - McCawley's rules explained.
Quick Overview: What is Pitch Accent?
Japanese is a pitch-accent language. Unlike English (stress-accent) or Chinese (tonal), Japanese uses HIGH and LOW pitch patterns to distinguish meaning.
Note: 橋 is Odaka - the pitch drop only appears on the following particle (が, を, etc.). In isolation, it sounds like a flat pattern!
Getting pitch wrong won't always cause misunderstanding, but it's the difference between sounding natural and sounding foreign.
Content based on NHK日本語発音アクセント新辞典 and standard Tokyo dialect phonology.