Default yomichan audio source has the incorrect pitch accent decently often. You can replace it with a better one.

When I first set up my yomichan i set it up to put the pitch accent patterns on my cards but didn’t pay that much attention to pitch accent.

I recently started focusing on pitch accent and i got to the point where i can perceive it accurately pretty well. And I noticed that for a bunch of my cards the indicated pitch accent pattern doesn’t match what the audio that yomichan grabbed from japanesepod101 is saying.

Forvo is another site you can get pronunciations from and it’s been correct in my experience. Here are some examples I’ve found recently of words incorrect in japanesepod101 and correct in forvo.

– わらべ
– japanesepod101, heiban incorrect: https://assets.languagepod101.com/dictionary/japanese/audiomp3.php?kanji=%E7%AB%A5&kana=%E3%82%8F%E3%82%89%E3%81%B9
– forvo, atamadaka correct: https://audio12.forvo.com/audios/mp3/b/g/bg_9478059_76_1800918.mp3
– 故人
– japanesepod101, heiban incorrect: https://assets.languagepod101.com/dictionary/japanese/audiomp3.php?kanji=故人&kana=こじん
– forvo, atamadaka correct: https://audio12.forvo.com/audios/mp3/d/i/di_9328408_76_2692017.mp3
– 必需
– japanesepod101, nakadaka incorrect: https://assets.languagepod101.com/dictionary/japanese/audiomp3.php?kanji=%E5%BF%85%E9%9C%80&kana=%E3%81%B2%E3%81%A4%E3%81%98%E3%82%85
– forvo, heiban correct: https://audio12.forvo.com/mp3/9699293/76/9699293_76_1206362.mp3
– 憑依
– japanesepod101, heiban incorrect: https://assets.languagepod101.com/dictionary/japanese/audiomp3.php?kanji=%E6%86%91%E4%BE%9D&kana=%E3%81%B2%E3%82%87%E3%81%86%E3%81%84
– forvo, atamadaka correct: https://audio12.forvo.com/audios/mp3/n/t/nt_9221075_76_3304433.mp3

You can use this addon to set up yomichan to use forvo audio instead. I’d highly recommend doing this even if you aren’t actively studying pitch accent, because why would you want to hear the wrong accent a ton of times?

https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/580654285

When I find a flashcard that I made before i set yomichan up to use forvo that has an incorrect pitch accent, i use this addon to get the forvo audio.

https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/858591644

1 comment
  1. I wonder how often the pitch accents differ because of regions/dialect within Japan vs. people that have no idea what they’re doing pronouncing the words….

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