How to Pronounce Japanese Tsu and Su

[michaelwatson]

Making the つ sound isn't terribly difficult. Hearing it, on the other hand, is something else entirely.

[RinMichaelis]

I can't even hear the difference.

[daneilwolf]

“A silent voice” makes a little more sense now!

[ujelly]

Hi everyone that is reading this comment! I think I was able to figure out what is the SOLUTION to pronouncing "Tsu" the right way!

1. Try to say "Tsk" and repeat it a few times.

2. Then drop the k.

3. Now pronounce "Ts" by itself and repeat that sound.

4. Finally, add the "u" to "Ts" and now sound out "Tsu."

I hope this helps because at first I was aggravated with having trouble to figure this out but boy when I did it was a victory. Have a nice day everyone!

[savanimay]

Thank you for this explanation. Tsu is not necessarily hard to pronounce by itself, but distinguishing the sound from su and zu is difficult. This was holding me back in my hiragana studies, so thank you.

[duckretainer]

Using catsu to practice is super helpful. Thank you

[hanhoang]

Oh this brings me back to a silent voice. Ishida heard tsuki instead of suki

[MechaShadowV]

I must admit tsuki/suki and the other examples sound the same to me. Which I think is part of the problem, to many English speakers it's hard to here a difference. They all had a distinct "t" sound in them. See I've always pronounced tsuki (and similar sounds) as "t"suki, and suki as "s"uki. Where as what I hear is "ts"uki and "t""s"uki respectively. So one sounds like ts combined well the other sounds like you are separating the t and s sound. And it's similar in the other examples as well, it's just the first one is the most noticeable as it seems to have the harshest s sound.

[JKTravelsShow]

Me =
- Can say "tsu" and "su".
- Can hear the difference when I say "tsu" and "su".
- Can't hear the difference when Japanese people say "tsu" and "su" no matter how hard I try. 😭😭

[onionike]

I still can't hear the difference... How does one make the sound?

[nicholasgarcia]

That made it so easy to understand the difference and why it’s harder for Americans so I appreciate you takin the time to explain and give some good examples especially since I’m trying to learn Japanese right now 😁

[paul_particularlyunhappynut]

I need to up my volume by at least 3x to remotely grasp the difference

[azusaabroadalwayseverywher]

My Japanese friends have tried to teach me.... they end up giving up. Hopefully I have this down now

[CupcakesEllie]

this was a really helpful video especially i think the part about your tongue touching your mouth to make the t sound. i don’t know if it sounds right when i say it but it’s certainly closer when i’m conscious of what i’m doing with my tongue

[cortexauth]

I have to pay very focus to hear that "ts", sometimes I can't hear it at all, it does need some training

[tangoto]

I couldn't figure out the difference between つ and す but after hearing that つ is like ts at the end of cats it made it way easier to both pronounce and to hear

[djabutilol]

im glad my native language has that sound

[amalaylay]

Thank you so much! This really helps clarify the difference

[Calamity]

Thank you so much for this video! I was looking at a Hiragana chart and saw that the symbol meant "Tsu". I wasn't sure how to pronounce it.

[jademerrydown]

thank you so much this is really hard XD hearing it is still rather hard though.