案内 · GUIDE

Pitch in five minutes.

Japanese doesn't stress syllables like English. Every mora gets a steady beat, and the voice rides between two levels: high and low. What changes meaning is not the level itself, but where it falls.

Count morae first

A mora is one beat. きょ is one mora despite being two characters. The long vowel mark ー and the little pause っ each count as full beats: こーひー is four (こ・ー・ひ・ー), きって is three (き・っ・て).

The four shapes

平板 · HEIBANともだちともだちfriend — no drop inside the wordLow start, then high and it stays up.

頭高 · ATAMADAKAいまいま今 (now) — イ↓マFirst mora high, immediate drop.

中高 · NAKADAKAおかしおかしお菓子 (sweets) — おカ↓シRises, then drops mid-word.

尾高 · ODAKAあたまあたまhead — アタマ↓ (が)Stays high through the word, drops on what follows.

The drop is the meaning

端はし 0edge — stays high, はしが

箸はし 1chopsticks — ハ↓シ

橋はし 2bridge — high to the end, はし↓が

Same sounds, three words. In writing the drop is marked ＼ after the kernel mora: は＼し (箸). On this site the red ＼ sits between the steps of the contour.

The particle trick. 平板 and 尾高 look identical inside the word. The difference shows up one beat later: 友ともだちが keeps the particle high; 頭あたまが drops it. When you check a word, say it with が and listen to the particle.

How to train

Perception comes first. Studies on high-variability phonetic training (Hirano-Cook, 2011; Sugiyama, 2022) and the minimal-pair tests used across the learner community all point the same way: hear the contrast before you try to produce it, and drill one contrast at a time.

Ten pairs a day on the Train page, the ones you miss repeated until they land. Shadow words out loud on Speak: mimicry with immediate feedback beats reading about pitch (shadowing research, e.g. Rongna, 2012). And keep expectations set in weeks, not days. Beginners scoring half on minimal pairs is normal.

Where the data comes from

Pitch accents for all 6,000 words come from Kanjium by Uros O. (CC BY-SA 4.0), ranked with its novel and Wikipedia frequency lists, with meanings from JMdict (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0). Full credits on the credits page.