Pitch accent
Japanese pitch accent, heard in real speech
はし can mean chopsticks, a bridge or an edge. The sounds are the same. The pitch is not. In Wakatta, hold any word in a podcast transcript to see its pitch accent, then play it as the speaker said it in the episode.
What pitch accent is
In standard (Tokyo) Japanese, each mora is high or low, and each word has a fixed place where the pitch drops, or no drop at all. Dictionaries write that place as a number: [1] means the pitch drops after the first mora, and [0] means it never drops. There are four patterns:
- Heiban (平板) [0]: starts low, rises on the second mora and stays high, also on the particle that follows.
- Atamadaka (頭高) [1]: starts high and drops right after the first mora.
- Nakadaka (中高): rises on the second mora and drops inside the word.
- Odaka (尾高): stays high to the end of the word and drops on the particle that follows. On its own it sounds like heiban.
Same sounds, different words
Every sentence below is real: it is a line from a podcast in Wakatta, at the second where the word is said.
| Word | Pitch | Heard in | Podcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 箸 はし chopsticks | [1] Atamadaka | 「お箸はお付けしますか | Easy Japanese Listening Podcast |
| 橋 はし bridge | [2] Odaka | 危ない橋は渡らない、ね | Nihongo con Teppei 波! |
| 端 はし edge | [0] Heiban | なんとなく道の端をこそこそと歩く人 | Nihongo con Teppei 波! |
| 雨 あめ rain | [1] Atamadaka | また降る、雨が。 | Japanese with Teppei and Noriko |
| 飴 あめ candy | [0] Heiban | この飴、まだ味がする | となりの雑談 |
| 牡蠣 かき oyster | [1] Atamadaka | 牡蠣というのは貝ですね。 | Let’s Talk in Japanese! |
| 柿 かき persimmon | [0] Heiban | 柿は、オレンジの果物で | The Bite size Japanese Podcast |
| 花 はな flower | [2] Odaka | 何日に花が咲いたか | Easy Japanese Listening Podcast |
| 鼻 はな nose | [0] Heiban | 鼻がむずむずする。 | Nihongo con Teppei 波! |
花 and 鼻 sound the same on their own. The difference is on the particle: after 花 the pitch drops on が, and after 鼻 it stays high.
Why hear it, not only read it
A dictionary gives you a number. Listening gives you the thing the number describes: a real voice, at normal speed, inside a sentence. Odaka words like 橋 and 花 only show their pattern on the next particle, and you hear that only in connected speech.
How it works in Wakatta
- Hold a word in the transcript. The word card shows its reading with a pitch line over it.
- Tap the line to see the pattern name, what it means, and the dictionary number.
- Play the word as the speaker said it in the episode, or read by your phone's voice.
Where the pitch comes from
The pitch line comes from UniDic, the dictionary of Japan's National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL). If we are not sure of a word's pitch, we show nothing. A wrong pitch is hard to unlearn.
What to keep in mind
- The line shows the word said on its own. In compounds and fast speech the pitch can move.
- It shows standard Tokyo pitch. Some podcast hosts speak a regional dialect, such as Kansai, where the pitch is different. That is a good thing to notice too.
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