LLearn Japanese

一回 and 一階 are pronounced the same or not?

[Ikkai (Japanese Pitch Accent Is Just Impossible – Listen Carefully)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kd2FmjVjnA)

So I’m wondering why they’re sometimes pronounced the same and sometimes aren’t. He says 一回 should be pronounced as heiban when it’s followed by something but **一回は**行ってみたい is **LHHLL** not LHHHH.

Also 一週間より and 一週間ぐらい are not the same either?

4 comments

  1. Yes both are not the same. I assume the reason why 一回 & 一階 pronounce differently is not to misunderstand the word as they have completely different meaning. Not sure about the latter though.

  2. Pitch accent can vary based on whether a word is being used as a noun or as an adverb. In particular, many adverbial nouns with a downstep in the last syllable become 平板 when used as an adverb. 一回 follows this rule — i.e., いっか＼い as a noun and いっかい￣ as an adverb. Another example is きの＼うは vs. きのう￣、…

    For the second question, it depends on the speaker. ぐらい is one of a number of particles that _can_ delete a downstep in the noun that it attaches to and replace it with its own, but not all speakers follow this rule. In your example, both いっしゅ＼うかんぐらい and いっしゅうかんぐ＼らい are acceptable. より, on the other hand, never deletes the preceding noun’s downstep.

    edit: clarification

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