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How to pronounce japanese "e" ? 2008/5/24 10:49
I have seen in multiple text books that the japanese ''e'' is pronounced like the e in ''step'', but I have also seen and heard it pronounced as ''ay'' as in the word ''stay''. So which is correct?
by birdie41  

? 2008/5/24 16:10
I'm no teacher, but most things I've hear with the "e" have the sound "ay"
by daz88 rate this post as useful

step, not ay 2008/5/24 20:34
It's much closer to the e as in the word step. To be pronounced as "ay", there would need to be an i after the e.

Think of (or listen out for) the difference between the pronunciation of "me" for example (meaning "eye") and "mei" meaning "niece". In the first the e sounds more like the e in step, in the second along with the i it sounds like "ay".
by Sira rate this post as useful

long version of "e" 2008/5/25 00:36
Basically, a Japanees "e" is pronounced like "step".

A Japanese "e" is never exactly pronounced as "ay" as in "stay".

However, sometimes it is pronounced as "e-e" meaning two "e"s, or in other words a lengthly version of "e". For English speakers, this may sound like "ay".

An example is "o-nesan" which means "sister". This type of word can also be written as "oneesan" etc. but people often shorten the double e.
by Uco rate this post as useful

phonetics 2008/5/25 08:07
Yeah, I wanted to say that the Japanese sound is phonetically different from the English dipthong you hear in "ay", but I thought I would keep it simple ;-)

Actually the pronunciation of those sounds in English can vary from accent to accent anyway- people from other English-speaking countries often hear the New Zealand e sound in "step" as an i.

The best thing is to listen to native speakers and imitate their pronunciation, which is easy to do these days with the internet, and not base your pronunciation on English sounds.
by Sira rate this post as useful

Sira 2008/5/25 22:07
Just a short note for Sira. Yeah, I fully understood what you were trying to say, and I would've written the same. Then I discovered that I can't think of any English word to discribe the real sound of the Japanese "ee". So when one tries to explain "ee" to an English-speaking person, "ay" is the closest one can get.
by Uco rate this post as useful

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