How dire is it if I can’t pronounce the differences between similar sounds?

4 comments

1. Say ‘cat toy’ and you should have a pretty good basis for って.

   おう and オー are the same (except where う is an ending for a dictionary form verb like 思う) but different from お. The difference is the length here, so I’d recommend listening a lot and practising.

   This will definitely be important. You don’t want to talk about manga for virgins instead of girls.

2. these are all kind of important but you’ll get it

   you can either try to shadow recordings (speak along with them) or hire a tutor and be very clear that you would like to work on pronunciation

   if you want a lot of free recordings of words, try forvo.com

3. It does make a difference so people would probably have a harder time understanding you…but, like other said already for the most part its just a prolongued sound and its just a matter of practicing a lot to get it right….

   (that cat toy idea from the comment above….genius 😁)

4. yes, vowel length is an important part of japanese. the difference between うんこ and うんこう is, well, rather important..