Hi everyone.  The Part 3 of the Hiragana lesson will be on what we call Yo-on(ようおん,拗音) & Sokuon(そくおん、促音).  Once you master these two along with the 2 previous lessons (basic hiragana(seion) & dakuon, han-dakuon), you will be reading Japanese hiragana’s in no time. Please don’t think too hard.  These are just additional sounds in Japanese language.

Yo-on(ようおん,拗音)

These are smaller size hiragana’s expressed as  “ゃ “, “ゅ”, “ょ”.  These are pronounced as “ya”, “yu”, “yo” by itself, however, with added sounds, it creates another unique sounds.  Take a look at the chart below. See if you can pronounce these one at a time.

きゃ(kya)	きゅ(kyu)	きょ(kyo)	き(ki)	ぎゃ(gya)	ぎゅ(gyu)	ぎょ(gyo)	ぎ(gi)
しゃ(sya/sha)	しゅ(syu/shu)	しょ(syo/sho)	し(shi)	じゃ(zya/ja)	じゅ(zyu/ju)	じょ(zyo/jo)	じ(gi)
ちゃ(tya/cha)	ちゅ(tyu/chu)	ちょ(tyo/cho)	ち(chi)	ぢゃ(zya/ja)	ぢゅ(zyu/ju)	ぢょ(zyo/jo)	ぢ(ji)
にゃ(nya)	にゅ(nyu)	にょ(nyo)	に(ni)
ひゃ(hya)	ひゅ(hyu)	ひょ(hyo)	ひ(hi)	びゃ(bya)	びゅ(byu)	びょ(byo)	び(bi)	ぴゃ(pya)	ぴゅ(pyu)	ぴょ(pyo)	ぴ(pi)
みゃ(mya)	みゅ(myu)	みょ(myo)	み(mi)
りゃ(rya)	りゅ(ryu)	りょ(ryo)	り(ri)

When you are trying to pronounce these for the first time, it might be hard to read them out.  These are very unique sounds, but very important sounds.

Let’s try reading the following hiragana’s with these Yo-on’s in it.

きゃべつ

きゅうり

ぎゅうにゅう

ひゃく

かぼちゃ

きんぎょ

びょういん

りょうり

でんしゃ

にひゃく

These are read as follows:

きゃべつ(kyabetsu)-cabbage

きゅうり(kyuri)-cucumber

ぎゅうにゅう(gyunyu)-milk

ひゃく(hyaku)-hundred

かぼちゃ(kabocha)-Japanese pumpkin

きんぎょ(kingyo)-gold fish

びょういん(byoin)-hospital

りょうり(ryori)-cooking

でんしゃ(densha)-train

にひゃく(nihyaku)-two hundred

The last part of the Hiragana will be on Sokuon.

Sokuon(そくおん、促音)

The only Sokuon you have to worry about is just “っ”. This is the smaller version of “つ”, which we pronounce it as “tsu”.  However, for certain words, we use this small “っ” to double the sound that follows.

For example, きって is pronounced as “kitte” (stamp). ばった is pronounced as “batta” (grasshopper).  Let’s practice this in the next examples:

はっぱ

ろっこつ

がっこう

さっか

なっぱ

ねっとう

ふっとう

けっとう

こっとうひん

These are pronounced as follows:

はっぱ(happa)-leaf

ろっこつ(rokkotsu)-rib

がっこう(gakko)-school

さっか(sakka)-author

なっぱ(nappa)-green vegetables

ねっとう(nettou)-boiled water

ふっとう(futtou)-boil

けっとう(kettou)-duel

こっとうひん(kottouhin)-antique

Take a look at the video below. You can practice your pronunciation on Yo-on(ようおん,拗音) and learn some additional vocabularies within this video. Enjoy!

Hope these 3 lessons of Hiragana has helped you in your Japanese learning.  In my next series of articles, I will start covering Katakana(かたかな). Stay tuned for more future lessons on how to read Japanese!