Lauren suggested I make a topic to help people make sure their lyrics for Japanese songs are correct! For example, lyrics for Japanese K-pop songs often get messed up when being romanized, as K-pop fans who romanize them do so with a Korean mindset and get the words all wrong.
So here are some Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji charts to help make sure it's correct!
Letter Charts:Hiragana and Katakana: (Hiragana are in black, Katakana are in blue)
Kanji: http://infohost.nmt.edu/~armiller/japanese/kanjicom.htmThis website has a list of the first 410 Kanji, these are probably the only ones going to be in songs.
Basically if the lyric isn't a combination of consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel, consonent vowel, and possibly ending in "N", it's wrong. There might be multiple vowels before the next consonant (or N) or two of the same consonant in a row, but with the exception of things like "tsu" and "chi" and "shi" "(consonant)Y(vowel)" or other exceptions as seen in the Hiragana chart, multiple consonats is wrong.
Pronunciation Help:The five basic sounds in Japanese are
A, I, U, E, and O.These might be a bit trciky to pronounce for some who speak English and are used to the weird rules it has.
"A" always sounds like "A" as in "
Ah! What a nice day it is!" or "
Aww, are you ok?" or
"Car""I" always sounds like "I" as in "
Eek! A mouse!" or
"Key" or
"Me""U" always sounds like "U" as in "
Ooh~! What's that over there?!" or "New" or
"Glue""E" always sounds like "E" as in
"Elephant" or
"Eggs" or
"Endless""O" always sounds like "O" as in
"Oreo" or "
Oh my god!" or "
Oppan Gagnam Style!"
sorry I had too.Some other frequently hears sounds are "Ai" as in "I(myself)"and "Ou" as in "Oh!"
So I hope this helped you! Have fun singing in Japanese and if anyone ever needs help with anything Japanese related feel free to message me!! ^.^ -Heidi