Hayakuchi Kotoba: Japanese Tongue Twisters to Improve Your Pronunciation ～早口言葉で日本語の発音力アップ～
If you want to improve your Japanese pronunciation in a fun way that doesn’t involve a textbook or memorization, you’re in the right place!
In this video, we’re focusing on 早口言葉 (hayakuchi kotoba) - or Japanese tongue twisters - as a way for you to improve your overall pronunciation in a fun way. First, we’ll look at why they’re useful, how to practice, and then we’ll look at 4 example 早口言葉 that every native Japanese speaker knows.
Tongue twisters are really good for praticing your pronunciation and enunciation because they’re designed to mess with them so you need to focus more than usual to say them correctly.
How to Use Hayakuchi Kotoba to Improve Your Pronunciation
When you’re practicing with tongue twisters, start slowly and work out the individual sounds that are challenging. As you start to feel more comfortable, speed up your speech. But no matter what speed you’re saying them in, don’t forget to pay attention to each sound you’re making and the overall rhythm of your speech. Keep a good rhythm because that’s essential in Japanese where we use moras, and not syllables.
If you’re not sure what a mora is, no problem!
A mora is kind of like a timed syllable. It’s not exactly that, but it’s what you need to know for now. Apart from sounds like kya or myu or pyo, which are called yoon, usually one kana is one mora.
Shorter 早口言葉 can be practiced in sets of 3 to really test yourself!
And of course, feel free to turn it into a game with friends and classmates.
4 Example Hayakuchi Kotoba
Let’s look at 4 早口言葉 (hayakuchi kotoba) - I’ve tried to order them from easiest to hardest, but let me know if you agree with my ordering!
The first one is about jumping frogs - frogs jump, jumping 3 times, together they’re jumping, jumping 6 times
Play the video and practice along with me - slowly the first time, then faster a second time. If you need to pause the video as we’re going through it, don’t worry!
As we go through this one, make sure that “pyo” is one beat.
Let’s try the second hayakuchi kotoba.
It’s just a simple list - raw wheat, raw rice, raw eggs. For this one, focus on the ma mu gi go sounds.
We’ll go through this one twice too, once slower, then faster.
The meaning of this next one is simple, like the previous one - red wrapping paper, blue wrapping paper, yellow wrapping paper.
Between the second and third one, which have you found more challenging so far? Maybe they’re about the same?
Now for the final one - this is one I really struggle with, so I’m looking forward to your thoughts!
The meaning for this one is “Tokyo Patent Approval Office”. If you’re curious, it’s not a real place. The sounds yo want to pay attention to are the long “o” in Tokyo, the “kyo” sounds that are two kana but one bet, and the small tsu sound, which is also one beat.
Fast Practice!
Now that we’ve gone through all 4 of them together, let’s see how fast we can say them. If you need to watch the earlier part of the video again before moving on, that’s totally fine. Review and practice as many times as you like!
The first one we’ll only say once, and the remaining 3 we’ll do 3 times each. Follow along with the video if you’d like!
かえるぴょこぴょこ 3ぴょこぴょこ (Kaeru pyoko pyoko, mi pyoko pyoko)
合わせてぴょこぴょこ 6ぴょこぴょこ (Awasete pyoko pyoko, mu pyoko pyoko)
生麦 生米 生卵 (Namamugi, namagome, namatamago) x3
赤巻紙 青巻紙 黄巻紙 (Aka makigami, ao makigami, ki makigami) x3
東京特許許可局 (tōkyō tokkyo kyoka kyoku) x3
How was that?
Are you feeling pretty tongue tied?
Learn More
There are so many more 早口言葉 (hayakuchi kotoba) that you can use to practice and improve your Japanese pronunciation, including some that are also good for practicing pitch accent, but we’ll leave those for another day. For now, I’ll leave two more that you can practice on your own.
When you do practice them, don’t forget to first identify the individual sounds you need to focus on, start slow, then speed up as you get more confident!
1) 隣の客はよく柿食う客だ（となりのきゃくはよくかきくうきゃくだ/Tonari no kyaku wa yoku kaki kū kyaku da) - The customer next to me eats a lot of persimmons
2) 赤パジャマ 黄パジャマ 茶パジャマ（あかパジャマきパジャマちゃパジャマ/Aka pajama, ki pajama, cha pajama) - Red pajamas, yello pajamas, brown pajamas
Thank you for joining me today in practicing some well-known 早口言葉 (hayakuchi kotoba).
Please consider subscribing to the YouTube channel for more videos that will help you improve your pronunciation and pitch accent.
