Hear and write the difference between a short and a long Japanese vowel.

The idea

A long vowel takes an extra mora: おばさん and おばあさん differ in length and meaning. In hiragana, long e and o sounds may be written with い or え and う or お; katakana often uses ー, as in コーヒー.

Patterns to compare
WordMorae
おばさんお・ば・さ・ん
おばあさんお・ば・あ・さ・ん
せんせいせ・ん・せ・い
コーヒーコ・ー・ヒ・ー

Examples

  • おばさんは先生せんせいです。My aunt is a teacher.
  • おばあさんは先生せんせいです。My grandmother is a teacher.
  • 雪ゆきは白しろいです。Snow is white.
  • 駅えきは遠とおいです。The station is far away.
  • ケーキを食たべます。I eat cake.
  • コーヒーを飲のみます。I drink coffee.

Read-aloud uses a synthetic Japanese voice available on your device. Voice quality and availability vary; it does not assess your pronunciation.

Watch out

Do not assume the kana used to write a long vowel always matches the vowel sound literally. Learn the spelling of each word as well as its length.

Try it yourself

  1. Choose the word for grandmother: （おばあさん／おばさん）

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    おばあさん

    おばあさん is a word for grandmother or an older woman; the long あ distinguishes it from おばさん.

  2. Write the reading in hiragana: 先生

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    せんせい

    先生 is read せんせい; its final え sound is usually long although written えい.

  3. Choose and fill the blank: コ＿ヒー（ー／ッ）

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    ー

    The long vowel mark ー completes the katakana spelling コーヒー.

Use it today

Say おばさん and おばあさん with one versus two beats for the vowel, then practise a long-vowel word in katakana. For listening, use the Japan Foundation recordings 01-34 linked in the sources.