Basics of Japanese Pitch Accent

[@asaka616]

When I lived in Japan, I just tried to copy how Japanese people pronounce. It takes time but it comes with frequent exposure and practice.

[@MAYOFORCE]

Yeah I figured this kind of thing is something you'd just pick up by living in Japan or talking to Japanese people often

[@Kekswaffel208]

did you learn it by only exposure and nothing else?

[@japanese2811]

​@@Kekswaffel208By copying Japanese speakers...

[@MaartenT]

The problem is that some people don't seem to hear the difference, probably because they are not used to that type of accent. I have seen tests on other channels made by native Japanese teachers and I saw in the comment that some people just didn't hear the difference between both examples. So while I am sure what you did will work for the majority of people, especially if they are aware of the concept, and I think it's probably the best way to learn to speak a language as close as possible to a native speaker, it's probably not going to work for everybody.

[@leevalencia6968]

Yeah, I've heard plenty of people say they can't hear pitch differences even knowing they exist. It depends on your native language as well. Your brain will fit what it hears into the categories it expects, so you may think you're copying perfectly, but still be off.

[@serg823]

As a japanese who always struggled to explain the pitch accent to other people (it just seemed so random, yet so natural to me), I think this is the best video on the subject I've ever seen !

[@peppermintsmokes8528]

I wish more tutors and teachers were like Kaname in the way he presents the information and structures it. It's so logical, easy to comprehend, and always makes absolute sense! Thank you!

[@mohammednegm4007]

Yeah, he not only understands the concepts, but is also capable of explaining them clearly and intuitively. He's just a great teacher, I guess

[@mythiccass3837]

This is one of the best concise explanations of pitch accent, an aspect of the Japanese language that is getting increasing attention. Using a dot as a visual representation for pitch accent is much simpler. It's like putting up a tent; the cover gradually rises to the top then gradually down. Changes in pitch flow in a similar way. While it might seem a little overwhelming that there are several different patterns & exceptions, you are likely to naturally get used to it over time as you practice listening & using pitch accent.

[@RandomStuff-zw7uh]

I'm pretty sure this has always been paid attention to, if you look at Japanese learning material in Chinese, Korean, and probably other languages too. It's just that western educational material, e.g. Genki, etc. that don't talk about it.

[@ViperOfMino]

Well said! I just watched and I can't wait to apply this video's way of thinking of pitch accent when watching my favorite Japanese shows and movies. I feel like it's going to help my listening comprehension a lot.

[@azarishiba2559]

This. I think many people focus a lot on pitch accent in individual words isolated from sentences, when it's more important to know how it work on sentences, along with intonation. It's less overwhelming than trying to study lots of lots of word's pitch accents. As someone who doesn't put focus a lot on pitch accent, I have to say this video is great!

[@aa-cx8nc]

that doesn't make sense, for you to know how the words work in sentences you have to know the word's pitch lol

[@azarishiba2559]

@@aa-cx8nc Japanese sintagmas have easy to learn intonation patterns. If you know that, the pronunciation becomes better.

[@aa-cx8nc]

@@azarishiba2559 idk what a sintagma is but, if u mean the accent type that's just knowing the pitch of words

[@ApricityLife]

It’s so interesting how worried this made me reading this in a book, but when you hear it spoken I can hear *why* these make sense even though I don’t know the technical reason. They just sound better stressed where they are supposed to be. This video was awesome thank you!

[@PierceArner]

I really appreciate the way you structure your explanations of any concepts, as it makes it easy to see examples & understand the general rules to really quickly internalize them. Especially things like how the rules often sound child-like without understanding the exceptions makes it easier to know what to listen for when you hear exceptions to pronunciation and how they flavor the tone of a speech pattern.

[@tenma628]

PLEASE do more of these pitch accent videos !! you explain it so well

[@Wmann]

It gets natural over time :D

[@serafin3734]

Hey, don't I see you in kyouzou's streams sometimes?

[@ganqqwerty]

only if you have the basics. A lot of people have been speaking for tens of years, living and working in Japan and still never acquire pitch accent.

[@Wmann]

@@serafin3734 shh…

[@figgettit]

@@ganqqwerty even the people here who think theyve mastered it are dunning kruger. there is no way of knowing without feedback.

[@jasonl5572]

@@figgettitoh please

[@lahagemo]

more videos on pitch accent please! i’ve seen an innumerable amount of videos on it before, but yours is the first one where i’ve truly *got* it. ありがとうございました ナイトウ先生！🙏🏻

[@iamishin7675]

Bossman this helped a lot. Usually I see pitch accent explained in terms of the four patterns but that seems a lot more confusing than just identifying where the accented mora is in a word.

[@tuxos1159]

My guy is putting Dogen out of a job.

[@randxalthor]

Or maybe driving people to Dogen, since Dogen's course takes this start and fills in all the gaps.

[@meiji_apollo]

I wish they become friends. I like them both😊

[@satadlowcers2071]

At 1 video a month

[@Miraihi]

What's Dogen doin

[@サミュエル先生です]

thats a criminal statement lol

[@Naruuli]

You might be the first person I've seen on KZbin who explained the pitch accent in a proper way. ありがとうございます! 貴方のチャネルが大好きですよ！❤❤❤❤❤

[@Shun8734]

ありがとうございます！

[@lawnmower16]

Kaname back with another banger video, as usual

[@Trainfan1055Janathan]

When I bought a Japanese grammar book for beginners years ago, it tried to introduce me to pitch accent, but I didn't understand it. It said, "The "ki" in 切る is stressed, but the "ki" in 着る is unstressed." I didn't know what that meant because I never thought about how words are pronounced in my own language. For years, I pronounced 着る as "kiru," but pronounced 切る as "KHHHHHHHHHHHiru." Then years later while watching "Naruto Shippuden," I heard Sasuke say 早く服を着ろ, then it hit me. "OH! That book was saying that the last part of the word is higher! I get it now! So with 切る, the FIRST part of the word is higher."

[@Mobik_]

It's not stressing syllables, it is putting emphasis on an specific one

[@suntorytimes1]

@@Mobik_Emphasis _is_ stress. It may be realised as a combination of a higher pitch, a higher volume and longer sounds, depending on the language.

[@matzekatze7500]

Pitch is not stress. That's the fundamental difference​@@suntorytimes1

[@suntorytimes1]

@@matzekatze7500 It's not the same as stress in English (or in many other languages), but it's a kind of stress nonetheless.

[@ClulssCrs3310]

I like saying "accent" than "stress" "emphasis". But I think that's because my native language is Spanish which involves a comma or mark above a letter. Atención, parásito, árbol.

[@jeszeha]

This channel is such an incredible knowledge resource, ありがとうございます

[@Biomelast]

Kaname-san, I was familiar with this rule and regional variance on the way some words are pronounced (and sometimes incorrect ways to pronounce words) which honestly made me very nervous with accented words as a concept. This video is the first one that was able to make me completely understand accented words. Thank you very much.

[@MJ-en5hi]

It is crazy how much of this I've picked up learning Japanese without realizing. Never had it explained this well before though, Thank you!

[@jacobbiehl1210]

Honestly people usually explain pitch as low or high and you did a fantastic job explaining it well. Keep up these videos they are amazing!!

[@urajcptn]

This was great! I’d love a supplemental video breaking down pitch accent in full sentences and dialog - sort of like how you were starting to do towards the end of this video. Thank you as always!!

[@DeHaos]

基本の高低アクセント認識を広がせて誠にありがとうございます。視聴者向け役に立つ高低アクセントの動画だけでなく、上達に目指すと思います。

[@Clifford-pw9oi]

it’s interesting that most of these “rules” i’ve just unconsciously internalised while learning Japanese for almost 9 years now 😮

[@figgettit]

oh please

[@whatever3385]

​@figgettit why oh please? If you listen to Japanese people speak for years, you'll probably pick up a lot of speaking habits without even realizing they're rules. I hope so, anyway.

[@arielp7582]

Oh please

[@CharlyBGoode]

The same thing happened to me with english back in Uni. Beforehand, I had never even thought of the ocncept of primary or secondary accent.

[@abrahamgamer8331]

@@figgettitI learned hiragana katakana and over 100 kanji without looking at a single flashcard bet that will blow you’re damn mind

[@671Battlemage]

i always tried to follow the "rhythm" i hear in convos i listen in both anime and Japanese media. Hearing an explanation of where the accent is pitched higher and lower helps a lot

[@Kafilterfish]

I've been seeing a lot of discussion about pitch accent as of late, but you're the only one who's actually taken the time to explain all the little details. Great video! Thanks!

[@DuBCraft21]

I really wish I had been able to watch this 2 years ago when I first really started trying to learn about pitch accent! I had thought I was starting to get a handle on it several months ago and then I realized I was totally wrong and had actually developed some really bad listening habits because I had been forcing myself to hear the accents I had been told were associated with certain verbs, when in reality the accent had been overridden by by the ます form (ie I was forcing myself to hear 見ます or 立ちます as atamadaka when in reality the stress is on ま or is omitted). Thank you for the great video kaname-sensei! I really hope you make more pitch accent videos :)

[@Aeroxima]

Thanks, this helps a lot with understanding the general concept and having good defaults to fall back on. I think it'll make it a lot easier to pick up through hearing it. Also it's just a lot easier to understand a high point than some weird robotic square wave thing like in dictionaries.

[@fenarinarsa]

This way of showing where is the pitch accent is so much better.

[@pieragade6]

Thank you for another amazing video, Kaname!! You're the best! I've been studying japanese for so many years but for the first like... 5 years or more, no one ever told me about pitch accent. I like to practice pronouncing the words and phrases as I listen to people talking (in tv shows etc). So I believe I pronounce many things correctly (but sure I pronounce many things wrong too xD) BUT I never studied the rules in language school as I see you teach here. There are other japanese teachers on youtube that I started watching before finding you that also talk about this and I was like "can't believe it took me so long so hear about this" fr... Thanks a lot for another great video so I can keep studying and doing what I can to memorize and get used to this, haha! Greetings from Brazil!

[@iamsammybe]

I studied Japanese for many years starting in highschool, then living in Japan and got a bachelor's degree in college back in the States. Nowadays, I don't use it much so it's rusty but I try to brush up sometimes. I love these videos because you explain SO WELL so many things that my teachers and professors ignored, briefly explained, or claimed were not possible to teach. You are my hero!

[@edwarddean7]

I'm always happy when I see you're uploading videos, the amount of information you cover and the way you break it down is truly fantastic Thank you very much for your time and effort ❤

[@hakonsoreide]

Thanks. Nice set of "rules". Generalisations of rules are so helpful when learning languages, even when there are exceptions. It actually makes the exceptions too easier to remember when you encounter them. My first German teacher in school had some general rules for noun gender that I still remember because they were so useful. Watching this, I notice that despite tone accent never being part of what we learnt (Japanese is quite complex enough even without going into it), I actually followed many of these rules when I studied it in school 30 years ago. I just picked it up by osmosis when I listened to the lesson texts on tape.

[@Verbalaesthet]

ピッチアクセントを教えてくれてありがとうございました。分かりやすい説明でしたよ。

[@varietychan]

高低アクセント high low accent

[@h2knad]

上から目線で草

[@fedorkochemasov4533]

Very good video! Maybe some advice on sentence level pitch accent would be nice too

[@kengho]

Thanks!

[@gamebot89]

こんな動画が手伝ってくれたんですけどコンテクストがない会話で「雨」と「飴」って言葉は問題がありましたよ。ありがとございます。

[@weeklyfascination]

After a few decades in Japan, this is the first time I've heard about pitch accent with words that end in 語 or 的. Excellent information.

[@FinDi90]

What a great summery. Only one question... How do I know a word actually has an accent? I'd love to see another video.

[@W4iteFlame]

Appreciate using this many countries. Some of them I've never heard on Japanese before

[@EdwardLindon]

This is an excellent explanation, both intuitive and informative. Bravo and thank you.

[@mushrrafali4956]

I've been waiting for this one for soooooo long. Please upload more related to pitch accent....

[@fusroda1839]

Love the explanation. This is so helpful since I kinda struggled a lot with intonations when studying from books and even when trying shadowing, I couldn’t really see how this works systematically.

[@benjamimtavares3054]

Great explanation, please do also a video explaining how to react Japanese phrases with natural rhythms 😅!

[@mahiainti678]

These accent rules are so complicated. Hopefully i'll remember them after hearing the phrases 1000 times lol

[@sserojmirzachanyan5683]

Really good video, Kaname!

[@BoredBard2000]

This was one of the best videos I have ever seen on pitch accent. Calling it “accent” makes it so much easier to understand than the usual approach of “high” and “low” pitch. However, I have no idea how you’d approach studying it in practice? I believe the accent for each individual word is easily available online, which can amount for good practice, but what about full sentences? I recognize the importance of pitch accent, but I haven’t been able to find a good way to incorporate it in my learning schedule. My attempts often feel very overwhelming and frustrating.

[@kidchameleon]

Thanks

[@user-b3i2q]

I've been listening to a lot of children's stories over the past year, as a way to learn Japanese, and I do indeed notice that sometimes a "child-like, playful tone" will be used where the tone on the end of the word is raised up higher than normal, and it kind of has a short and quick cutoff. Like the word for "goodnight...." oyasumi (normal) oyaasuuMI (a playful, child-like way of speaking, I think) (sorry, it's kind of hard to show what I mean through text, but hopefully this makes sense.)

[@RAJclip15]

What i like so much about Kaname-sensei is that he doesn’t try to intimidate people who are trying to learn Japanese with “Oh yeah Pitch accent is REALLY hard so do hard” He really gives such easy to comprehend explanations to harder concepts in Japanese.

[@justinmontgomery9526]

PART 2 PLLEEASSSEEE Also, your videos have a very pleasing color palette. Was that on purpose? lol

[@gumifox]

More videos on pitch accent, please! I like it structured and ruled like this, rather than just drilling each word

[@VeroraOra]

Wow I didn't even realise I was doing it until you pointed out that they're meant to be pronounced like that. Listening is very powerful after all.

[@MonoTunez]

Thank you 🙏🏼 It will help me a lot with Ancient Greek pitch accent.

[@CarrotCakeMake]

This was a firehose of information. Thank you so much. Learned a lot.

[@flaviospadavecchia5126]

We want more of this! :D

[@Auradnor]

Please make a sequel! This is gold for learners like me Kaname!!

[@kstash3564]

I doubt he'll make it for free ... most likely available only in Patreon later.

[@ffelegal]

The most useful video on pitch accent. Mind blowing 😮

[@supporterofkira56]

This is better than that scammer Matt vs. Japan

[@Paraguai123]

This is so much easier to learn being Brazilian, because the concept exists here as well.

[@metallicaddictno1]

This is very helpful! Thank you 先生!

[@Gremlin_god]

Thank you so much! This video was super helpful!!!

[@FD-wt2zh]

Kaname, I hope you plan to make more content related to this!

[@buahahanomi]

I'm confused... how do I know on which mora an accent of a word exist?

[@laithtwair]

HOW DO YOU MAKE IT SO EASY KANAME

[@stevezodiacXL5]

He was born there - speaking Japanese just comes naturally to him!

[@laithtwair]

​@@stevezodiacXL5I don't mean speaking Japanese, I mean teaching it. If anything actually usually foreign learners are better at explaining things in ways that are easy to understand, since native speakers just know everything intuitively without any effort and most have never thought deeper about their language. Not with Kaname though

[@ViperOfMino]

​@@stevezodiacXL5 Being good (or in this case natural haha) at something is waaay different than being good at teaching something.

[@stevezodiacXL5]

@@ViperOfMino The thing is, I've been to Japan many times, and even young kids can speak it! I'm a grown up, and I find it very hard. I just don't know how they do it - I think they are just smarter in Japan.

[@akuma2095]

This is insanely helpful. I'm gonna need to take some notes.

[@atmosphericSkull]

大変勉強になりました！ありがとう！

[@Decade-c9k]

Thanks for another great video!

[@M_SID21]

お疲れ様でした！ これからも頑張ってくださいね😊 次のレッスンを楽しみにしています。

[@matercan5649]

I learnt pitch accent from just watching loads of anime, I never knew any of this. Yet now, I've gotten good enough at japanese that I just know the pitch accents just by reading the words. This video still fascinated me though

[@figgettit]

dunning kruger

[@katie5896]

ありがとうございます！ Your videos have been a great help to me! Do you have any plans to discuss pronunciation tips? Especially for し sound which can be hard for native English speakers? If not no worries. Thanks so much!

[@Erik_001]

wow. amazing lesson. thank you.

[@DarkSamus100]

Thanks for the video, and the tips. It's really useful, as the Japanese pitch accent is quite difficult for me. I have a hard time to correctly pronounce words, in any languages. Have a good day and one, Kaname sensei. The same to everyone. どうもありがとうございました、かなめ先生。お元気でお大事に。いってらっしゃい。皆さんも。

[@Chipohoy]

素晴らしい説明でした。よくわかりました。ありがとうございました！

[@holyshit7080]

Kaname!!!!!!

[@dunkansablaon6852]

You're a great Sensei! I love you! :)

[@zeymort3926]

That was very informative, thank you.

[@MelpomeneOhDearyMe]

I picked up some of the pitch through having a good musical ear while living abroad, but had always wondered about the rhyme and reason behind it. Very appreciative of you taking the time to explain it!

[@hudsucker2323]

Very good video, with some very useful information in it. As a former teacher of English myself (in Japan), I couldn't help noticing the way you pronounced the final syllable of the word "example" - to my (British) ears, it sounded much more like a "po" sound - I couldn't hear the "l" there at all. A native English speaker would insert the weak "schwa" vowel after the "p" and then the "l", albeit a soft one, but it's definitely audible. If you wanted to improve your English pronunciation (which is pretty good, by the way), you could start by working on the way you pronounce the word "example", so that it doesn't end up sounding like "exampo", which is how a lot of Japanese speakers say it (presumably because the "l" sound is tricky for Japanese speakers to replicate).

[@miketacos9034]

The most useful part of the accent lines over the words is that it separates strings of kana much more legibly 😂

[@ganqqwerty]

Even Kaname couldn't resist!

[@NotSomeJustinWithoutAMoustache]

I think pitch accent might be the first thing I learned about Japanese. I didn't have any vocabulary at the time yet, but always noticed the semi-consistent and somewhat predictable shifts in tone.

[@gmsmithucdavisedu]

Sorry to say, I got lost at the 15 second mark, "When the mora has an accent...". I was originally told that Japanese is a flat language, with no stresses. A lot later, I was told that there is a pitch accent, and words like 橋 and 箸 aren't homonyms. Fine, but how do I know whether to say a word or phrase using a 平板、頭高, or whatever pattern? The answer seems to be that the mora with an accent is the high-pitch part of the pattern, then everything falls into place. That would be great if I knew which mora has the accent. Please tell me how I can tell which mora has an accent. Thank you. Sorry if I missed an explanation in an earlier video; KZbin isn't really linear with time.

[@campfire1630]

Kaname I think you should make a video on muri, muda, and dame, all 3 are very interesting words and are difficult for new learners to understand due to their wide variety of nuances!

[@rhondanolan5578]

Kaname Sensei rocks my world! 😊

[@sherpFPS]

YAYYY KANAME VIDEO (edit: some of you are dorks for using this video to shit on dogen imagine just celebrating good Japanese learning content creators and leaving it at that 🤔)

[@davidcheng3573]

最も基本的なものは無視されることが多いです。ありがとうございました。

[@Mobik_]

For those asking: 平板 (へいばん - heiban) for "flat" words "_----" 頭高 (あたまだか - atamadaka) starts higher and goes down all the way "-____" 中高 (なかだか - nakadaka) the emphasis can go in the middle "_--__", " _ -___ ", "_----_" 尾高 (おだか - odaka) goes low for the first syllable and then all the way up until the last one that it drops "_------_". This could sound similar to 中高 on exception, but if is the last syllable dropping, most likely 尾高 All this information is just within a word. One last advice, once the pitch dropped IT NEVER GOES UP AGAIN. It can only go up in the first syllable and never again, once dropped/lowered, stays there. Extra, extra: All foreign loan words in Katakana have 尾高 pitch accent but, be careful as the word アイス (ice) will be 尾高 on its own and クリーム as well, but アイスクリーム will become a bigger 尾高 word. That applies to any other combination of words that generates a "bigger" one.

[@matzekatze7500]

*within a word

[@masatami]

アイス is 頭高, アイスクリーム is 中高. And there are plenty of 平板 words in カタカナ (コップ, for example).

[@notbaldfrost]

This is a misinterpretation of odaka. The accent on the last mora of these words means your pitch drops BETWEEN that last mora and the particle following the word. If there is no particle in front of the word, the word is spoken as if it were heiban. Some exceptions to this depend on the particle; the big one is attributive の which usually ignores the accent on odaka words (specifically!) and stays high as if they were heiban. I can't think of any gairaigo that fall under this category, let alone all of them. These words strongly tend to be accented on the third-to-last mora e.g. ガソリンスタ↓ンド, but many three/four-mora ones show up heiban instead e.g. スタンド￣.

[@Mobik_]

​@@masatamiif you go with such a short amount of syllables you'll have those cases 💀💀💀

[@Mobik_]

​​​​@@notbaldfrostif you read "WITHING A WORD" you can omit pretty much half of what you said because I'm not talking about sentences or uses of particles. Some people need to practice reading comprehension.

[@adamantawhitfoot2353]

So helpful, thank you!!

[@HampsterGirl]

I didn't understand pitch Accent at all until now. This video has helped me understand alot and I will now be listening out for pitch accent. I'd love to see you do a part 2 to fully understand all the concepts. One question, how am I supposed to know when a word is flat and when I'm supposed to pronounce mora higher or lower?

[@matzekatze7500]

What do you mean with your question?

[@Tedisdeaad]

Check the pitch with a dictionary that shows it or learn to be able to hear it. "kotu minimal pairs" is a good place to practice. Do like 50 a day until you're 100% accurate. Don't worry if you suck at first. When I started my score was bad enough that you could beat it by guessing without listening to the audio.

[@HampsterGirl]

@@matzekatze7500 I mean, How can I tell when to pronounce a word with a flat tone or when to use a higher or lower pitch

[@HampsterGirl]

@@Tedisdeaad Thank you!👍

[@lordbarron3352]

It's always right-o to watch kaname naito.

[@RadkeMaiden]

I think this is a great video, but I also think the thumbnail is misleading. After watching this video, I'm even more convinced that improper pitch accent makes speech sound strange and often incomprehensible. With that in mind, one would not want to ignore the pitch accent of 果物 like the thumbnail suggests.

[@konpeitosama]

I'm not Japanese whatsoever but I just do it naturally when speaking Japanese.

[@lindam.8113]

Just one question: how to know where the accent is? excatly this is my question, the video somehow didn't answer for me, sry.

[@Flufff1123]

You just memorize it ig

[@jon-boi]

Nice, a new 仮名目 video

[@ansyyxux]

it's actually 可奈女

[@jon-boi]

True, 無い糖 可奈女

[@hoangtrung21525]

Isn't it 要 or is there an inside joke?

[@notbaldfrost]

いや金目さんじゃね？

[@randint]

9:00 I am a bit surprised that you didn't choose Taiwan (たいわん) for demonstrating how the accent moves when the name ends with ん (〜んじん (~ん人))... you threw away your neighbor and went for Sweden and Iran?

[@Vampress09]

I think this is one of those things you can only internalize by listening to a lot of Japanese by natives.

[@xxtomoyaxx]

I like how kaname just factually explain all these rules and we all just take it knowing that japanese is like japan, full of rules 😂

[@srdjandjurdjevacki3903]

Hi Kaname! I watched some of your videos and I'm amazed by how well do you explain certain topics in Japanese 🤩 Do you know if there is an official Japanese grammar used in Japan for Japanese students? I want to study Japanese with a linguistic approach 😄

[@KramRemin]

The word "Accent" comes from Latin accounts of the Greek pitch accent, which Latin didn't have. But each prosody has to be analyzed on its own terms. Latin categories are very unhelpful to Greek words. Similarly, what's going on in Japanese is not so much "accent," i.e., ONE syllable being pronounced at a higher pitch, as pitch collapse, i.e., the Japanese ear is listening for where the higher pitch collapses to the lower. It's a slight shift in frame, but it makes all the difference. Japanese prosody starts to make sense.

[@surreal2287]

Great video. ありがとうございました！