Uploaded May 2024 | Updated September 2026, 14 hours ago
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You'll learn about Japanese phonetics, such as pronunciation, rhythm, pitch accent, intonation and so on. Those knowledge will help you sound natural when speaking Japanese.
カタカナ is used for loanwords, but why カラオケ is in Katakana even though it's a Japanese word?
The answer is in the video!
Join my subscription course!😊
speakjapanesenaturally.com
You'll learn about Japanese phonetics, such as pronunciation, rhythm, pitch accent, intonation and so on. Those knowledge will help you sound natural when speaking Japanese.
カタカナ is used for loanwords, but why カラオケ is in Katakana even though it's a Japanese word?
The answer is in the video!








![きょうsounds very different from きょ
Mora is very important concept for natural rhythm.
You can learn about Japanese mora in my course along with pronunciation, rhythm, pitch accent, intonation.
https://www.speakjapanesenaturally.com/
A subscriber commented that his こうきょ, meaning Imperial Palace, was mistaken for とうきょう. I’m gonna guess what happened and tell you how you can prevent it.
I think he said こうきょ as こうきょう based on the romaji spelling Koukyo, with the accent of Tokyo in English. the o as [ou].
You might think きょ and きょう sound the same, but they don’t. They sound very different to Japanese people. Romaji can be confusing. It’s best to learn hiragana and katakana for clear pronunciation.
Another thing is the pronunciation of きょ. This is きょ, not きよ. So こうきょ and こうきよ sound very different as well.
Specifically, きょ is one mora, きよ is two mora and きょう is two mora.
One mora and two mora sound very different.
It’s best to learn about Japanese mora as well. きょうsounds very different from きょ](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xg1pfNcTb0A/mqdefault.jpg)

