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I’ve been going through the Season 3/4 Anki decks a lot lately, and the cards that I can NEVER seem to get right are the audio cards for かえます (to change) and かいます (to buy). Is there any difference in pronunciation between the two, or is the verb inferred using context when someone says /kai•ma•su/?
No, there should be a difference in pronunciation. You’re not the first person to have a problem distinguishing them. How, exactly, are the audio files for these cards created? Did someone record them, or is it some sort of text-to-speech thing?
Phew! Glad to know it’s not just me.
@Joel – someone has recorded them, not text to speech
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This reply was modified 13 years, 7 months ago by
AnonymousI have a lot of trouble with this too!
They sound pretty similar. You should make an effort to pronounce every character correctly so that they don’t sound exactly the same but, in regular speech, even natives will pronounce them pretty much the same. Being named Kyle (カイル), I know a little something about this one…
Think of the words “padding” and “patting”. Yes, if you are very deliberate in your speech, they will sound different but, usually, in normal speech, they will sound the same.
Aye. It’s going to be pretty important to be able to distinguish い from , especially when you start to learn potential forms, as the difference may not always be clear from the context. For example. 買います = buy, but 買えます = able to buy.
Edit: Ya know, I just worked out what was bugging me about the topic title. かいる is not the dictionary form of 買います. For that matter, かいる doesn’t seem to be a word at all, save as a weird irregular alternate reading of the word for frog – which, of all things, happens to be かえる. =P
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This reply was modified 13 years, 7 months ago by
Joel.
I haven’t used it before, but I was thinking about going to Lang8 to hear more examples of these sounds, to try and conquer them. Anybody have experience with Lang8? Would that be worthwhile?
@thisiskyle – thanks – that’s a good explanation, good way of seeing it.
Drew/everyone – I got the below explanation to this issue from a Japanese teacher. See what you think.
Pay attention to the shape of your mouth. When you say “a-e”, it doesn’t change. The location of your tongue changes, though.
But when you say “i”, you should widen your mouth horizontally. So, the shape of your mouth changes from a circle (a) to a horizontal line (b) without closing your mouth.
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This reply was modified 13 years, 7 months ago by
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