Lesson 3

こんにちは！

Again, my computer is acting goofy, so hopefully, I will get this done today.

So far, we have done the 5 base sounds, the exception, and the 'k' sounds. But a quick review:
Romaji is shown before the pronunciation.
あ= (a) ah
い = (i) ee
う = (u) oo
え = (e) eh
お = (o) oh

ん = (n) the 'n' sound in sung. Don't forget, this is a back of the tongue sound.

か = ka
き = ki
く = ku
け = ke
こ = ko

Yeah! Progress!

But now for something tricky. We are going to learn the dakuten also known as tenten.
With this tenten, we are going to make 'g' sounds. To write the 'g' form of a kana, you add the tenten to the 'k' kana.

Thus...

か + dakuten = が

And I will make all of these larger so you can see the placement. The placement is important because, and I know this from experience, when you are writing Hiragana, if it's wrong, it can make it difficult to read.

が = ga
ぎ = gi
ぐ = gu
げ = ge
ご = go

Noticing a pattern with the sounds? Pretty easy huh?

Let's learn some words.

えがお = egao = smile, or a smiling face
ごご = gogo = afternoon
えいご =eigo = English language.
ご = go = five
げんき = genki= healthy, lively. But, really it's more than that. It something that has no English translation. More like a feeling of positiveness. This is part of a common Japanese greeting. The longer version is げんきですか？ Genki desu ka? Basically, "Are you well?"

Okay, that is it for the vocabulary today. The dakuten the five there should keep you busy until tomorrow.

Happy learning!