So... u wanna learn japanese, Lesson 3

NOTICE: Yes, i copied this off a different website, but thats just because i didn't want to type it all...

Although the writing system used by the Japanese is difficult, Japanese words can be written using Western characters - this is called rômaji - and you will find that it is quite easy to read words written in this way and pronounce them correctly.Try studying the tables below then writing and learning all of the characters in japanese, and make sure you know which characters go with which romaji!!!

Vowels

a	i	u	e	o
Ah,	we	soon	get	old

is a useful reminder of how each vowel should sound. Long vowels are simply pronounced as a continuous sound, equal in value to two identical short vowels. However, there can be some variation in how the different transcription systems indicate them. Sometimes they are shown with a bar ¯ (macron) over the top of the letter 

Our method for these pages	â	î	û	ê	ô
Variants you will come across	aa	ii	uu	ei, ee	ou, oo

Syllables 
n is the only consonant not combined with a vowel. Generally it is pronounced like the English n but if it is followed by syllables beginning with b, m or p it is pronounced more like the English m. All other sounds in Japanese are combinations of consonant + vowel.

ka (kah)	ki (key)	ku (coo)	ke (kA)	ko (co)
sa	shi	su	se	so
ta	chi	tsu	te	to
na	ni	nu	ne	no
ha	hi	fu	he	ho
ma	mi	mu	me	mo
ya		yu		yo
ra	ri	ru	re	ro
wa				(w)o
Modified syllables:
ga	gi	gu	ge	go
za	ji	zu	ze	zo
da	ji	zu	de	do
ba	bi	bu	be	bo
pa	pi	pu	pe	po
Combined syllables:
kya		kyu		kyo
sha		shu		sho
cha		chu		cho
nya		nyu		nyo
hya		hyu		hyo
mya		myu		myo
rya		ryu		ryo
gya		gyu		gyo
ja		ju		jo
bya		byu		byo
pya		pyu		pyo