Particles Don't Have Their Own Pitch
Japanese particles (が, は, を, に, etc.) don't have independent pitch accents. Instead, they inherit their pitch from the word they follow. This is why particles are critical for distinguishing certain accent patterns.
Think of particles as "pitch followers" - they simply continue whatever pitch pattern came before them.
How Particles Reveal Accent Type
Remember Heiban (平板) vs Odaka (尾高)? They sound identical in isolation! The difference only appears when a particle follows:
Notice: 桜が stays high on the particle, while 山が drops on the particle. Without the particle, both would sound the same!
The Three Particle Behaviors
1. After Heiban (平板) → Stays HIGH
Heiban words have no pitch drop, so particles continue high.
2. After Odaka (尾高) → DROP to LOW
Odaka words drop on the particle - this is their defining feature!
3. After Atamadaka/Nakadaka → Already LOW
The drop already happened within the word, so particles stay low.
Common Particles Reference
All of these particles follow the same pitch inheritance rules:
subject
object
direction
toward
at/by
with
from
until
Special Case: は (Topic Marker)
The topic marker は follows the same rules as other particles, but it often appears in longer phrases where multiple pitch patterns interact.
Practice Tips
- 1.When learning new vocabulary, always learn the accent number. It tells you what happens to following particles.
- 2.Practice saying words with particles attached: 「猫が」「桜を」「山へ」
- 3.Pay special attention to Heiban vs Odaka pairs - they're only different when particles follow!
- 4.Use the analyzer to see how particles connect to different word types.
Sources
- NHK日本語発音アクセント新辞典 - Standard reference for Tokyo dialect pitch accent
- Vance, Timothy J. (2008). The Sounds of Japanese. Cambridge University Press.
- Kawahara, Shigeto (2015). "The phonology of Japanese accent." Handbook of Japanese Phonetics and Phonology.