みなさん、こんにちは！
I’ve uploaded a short video about the difference between syllables and mora.
Some Japanese people use ‘syllables’ to refer to mora, which leads to confusion at times.
Here, I use the word ‘syllable’ as the one used in English: a unit of sound based around a vowel, with or without consonants.
So when you think with syllables, for example,
たのしかった might be divided as
Tan-o-shik-at-ta or something similar.
However,Japanese words should be divided by mora, like
た-の-し-か-っ-た 5 mora
Even small つ and ん each count as one mora.
The example I presented in the video was,
おばあちゃん（Grandma）
おばちゃん（Auntie）
When you think with syllables, both of them have 3 syllables:
おばあちゃん[o-baː-tʃan]
おばちゃん[o-ba-tʃan]
This leads to the confusion of not perceiving the difference, even though they are clearly distinct words.
When speaking Japanese, it’s crucial to think in terms of mora, not syllables.
When you brake down these words by mora,
お-ば-あ-ちゃ-ん 5 mora
お-ば-ちゃ-ん 4 mora
If you’d like to dive into details, you can Join Japanese Phonetics with Fumi from the Services page.
Have a great day :)
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