Japanese Pronunciation - the difference between す and つ
I was thinking about the difference between す and つ, how do you ensure that you sound them correctly and how can you hear the difference?
I still can't quite master the pronunciation of Japanese words and I think it ultimately boils down to the fact that I just don't have enough experience of talking to native speakers (not that I have the confidence to do that much anyway ^^p). The best advice I have been given so far on how to sound these characters was given to me by a japanese friend, I listened to him sound both す and つ for ages and still couldn't quite get it right, so I began to watch instead... Now, I'm sure there are numerous ways of producing the same sound in japanese (just as there are in English) but his way seems to work for me so I thought I'd share my opinions on it.
1) The sound difference...
In romaji the characters す and つ are often written as "su" and "tsu" respectively. The "su" sounds more pure (rather similar to its sound in English). I can't really think of any sound in english that will describe the "tsu" sound in Japanese, its just one of those things you have to get used to. I personally found it helpful to listen to the words "suki" (to like something) and "tsuki" (the moon). In my opinion the listening part is the easier of the two anyway so just listen to them as much as you can and don't worry if you can't hear a difference to begin with, it will come eventually. ^_^
2) The pronounciation difference...
Now this is the part I've really had problems with until recently. You can listen to and watch japanese people speak as much as you like and although this might help you with the mouth shape you won't necessarily know where to position your tongue. The best advice I got was that in "su" the tongue doesn't touch the teeth whereas in "tsu" it does. All I can really say is that from practicing various positions the one that works best for me (and seems to be most correct) is when my tongue rests against my bottom teeth while pronouncing "tsu". There shouldn't really be any need to push your tongue against your teeth as it should just rest there, but if you're having problems with this applying some pressure can help you to get used to the sound.
I hope this helps anyone struggling with this same problem ^__^
I still can't quite master the pronunciation of Japanese words and I think it ultimately boils down to the fact that I just don't have enough experience of talking to native speakers (not that I have the confidence to do that much anyway ^^p). The best advice I have been given so far on how to sound these characters was given to me by a japanese friend, I listened to him sound both す and つ for ages and still couldn't quite get it right, so I began to watch instead... Now, I'm sure there are numerous ways of producing the same sound in japanese (just as there are in English) but his way seems to work for me so I thought I'd share my opinions on it.
1) The sound difference...
In romaji the characters す and つ are often written as "su" and "tsu" respectively. The "su" sounds more pure (rather similar to its sound in English). I can't really think of any sound in english that will describe the "tsu" sound in Japanese, its just one of those things you have to get used to. I personally found it helpful to listen to the words "suki" (to like something) and "tsuki" (the moon). In my opinion the listening part is the easier of the two anyway so just listen to them as much as you can and don't worry if you can't hear a difference to begin with, it will come eventually. ^_^
2) The pronounciation difference...
Now this is the part I've really had problems with until recently. You can listen to and watch japanese people speak as much as you like and although this might help you with the mouth shape you won't necessarily know where to position your tongue. The best advice I got was that in "su" the tongue doesn't touch the teeth whereas in "tsu" it does. All I can really say is that from practicing various positions the one that works best for me (and seems to be most correct) is when my tongue rests against my bottom teeth while pronouncing "tsu". There shouldn't really be any need to push your tongue against your teeth as it should just rest there, but if you're having problems with this applying some pressure can help you to get used to the sound.
I hope this helps anyone struggling with this same problem ^__^