Japanese Long Vowels for English Speakers: おばさん vs おばあさん, Meaning Changes, Spelling Rules, and Listening Practice

You walk into a Japanese home and want to compliment the older woman who greets you. You say おばさん — but her expression changes. You actually called her おばあさん in your head, but your mouth said something else entirely. Welcome to the world of Japanese long vowels, where one extra beat of sound can turn “aunt” into “grandmother,” “here” into “high school,” or “courage” into “snow.”

Long vowels — called ちょうおん（長音） in Japanese — are one of the most common stumbling blocks for English-speaking learners. Not because they are complicated in theory, but because English does not train your ear or your mouth to think about vowel length the way Japanese does. In English, vowels change in quality (the shape of your mouth); in Japanese, vowels stay the same quality and simply get held longer. That shift in thinking takes real practice to absorb.

This guide will walk you through everything: what long vowels are, how they change meaning, how they are written in hiragana and katakana, how to say them and hear them correctly, and the most common mistakes English speakers make. By the end, you will have a solid foundation — and a set of practice routines you can use today.

At a Glance: Short Vowel vs Long Vowel

What Is a Japanese Long Vowel?

Length, Not Stress

Japanese is a mora-timed language. A mora is a unit of timing — think of it as a single musical beat. Every syllable in Japanese takes up exactly one mora, except for long vowels and certain special sounds (っ and ん), which each take one mora of their own.

A short vowel takes one mora. A long vowel takes two morae. That means when you say おかあさん (mother), the word has five morae: o-ka-a-sa-n. When you say おかさん (which is not a real word), it would have only four. The extra mora of aa is not a mistake — it is a structural part of the word that carries meaning.

Why Long Vowels Can Change Meaning

Unlike English, where lengthening a vowel slightly just sounds like emphasis (“GREEEEAT”), in Japanese it creates a completely different word. This is not an exaggeration — it is a phonological fact of the language. The vowel length is phonemic, meaning it alone can distinguish two words with different meanings.

Consider these pairs:

Notice that the pairs above are not just “the same word said more slowly.” They are different words entirely, with different meanings, spellings, and uses. Confusing them in conversation can lead to genuine misunderstandings.

How Long Vowels Affect Listening

When you listen to Japanese, your brain needs to count mora durations. Native speakers do this automatically, but English-trained ears tend to group sounds by stress patterns instead. This means you might hear おばあさん and mentally register it as “o-BA-san” — missing the doubled vowel entirely because English stress has trained you to listen for which syllable is louder, not how long the vowel lasts.

The good news: with deliberate practice, your ear can be retrained. It takes focused listening — especially with slow audio — before the distinction becomes natural.

How Long Vowels Affect Speaking

When producing long vowels, the challenge is to hold the vowel for a second beat without:

• Making it louder (English stress habit)
• Changing its quality (English vowel shift habit)
• Rushing through it to get to the next syllable

The vowel sound stays identical — same mouth shape, same pitch range (ignoring pitch accent for now) — it simply lasts twice as long. Think of it like holding a note in music: you do not play a different note, you hold the same one longer.

Japanese Long Vowels vs English Vowel Stress

English Uses Stress and Vowel Quality

In English, when we change a vowel, we change its quality — the physical shape your mouth makes. The word “beat” uses a different vowel shape than “bit.” The word “pool” uses a different vowel shape than “pull.” English also uses stress to make certain syllables louder and longer than others. In “photography,” the second syllable is stressed: pho-TOG-ra-phy.

This means English speakers carry two deeply ingrained habits into Japanese: (1) vowels change quality under stress, and (2) length is tied to stress, not to the vowel itself.

Japanese Uses Mora Timing

Japanese vowels do not change quality under stress. The vowel o in お sounds the same whether it appears at the start, middle, or end of a word. What changes in a long vowel is purely duration. The word おう (king) has two morae: o (one beat) and u (one beat) — but because ou represents a long o sound in standard Japanese, you hold the o sound for two full beats without inserting a “w” glide.

Do Not Make the Word Louder

One of the most common errors English speakers make is treating long vowels as stressed vowels — saying oh-BAH-sahn for おばあさん, with the baa part louder and more emphatic. This is not correct. The length of the vowel is not accompanied by increased volume or stress. In fact, Japanese pitch accent (the rise and fall of pitch across syllables) operates independently of vowel length — a long vowel can appear on a low-pitch syllable just as easily as a high-pitch one.

Hold the Vowel Longer

The correct approach is simple in principle: hold the vowel for one extra beat at the same volume and same sound quality. If you are saying おばあさん, think of it as five even musical beats: o – ba – a – sa – n. Each beat is equally weighted in time. The “baa” is two beats not because it is stressed, but because there are literally two vowel morae in that position.

Why English Habits Cause Mistakes

Because English speakers are not used to duration being the meaningful dimension, two things happen: we tend to shorten long vowels (saying おばさん when we mean おばあさん), and we tend to lengthen short vowels with stress (saying “ohhhBAH-san” when meaning is ambiguous). Both errors reduce communication accuracy.

The solution is not to think harder in the moment — it is to train your ear and mouth separately through dedicated practice until mora-timing becomes a physical habit.

Yuka

So if Japanese vowels do not get louder — they just get longer — does that mean I have been saying おばあさん wrong this whole time?

Rei

Probably, yes — most English speakers do at first. But the good news is that once you understand it is about timing rather than volume, fixing it is mostly a matter of slowing down and counting beats. Try clapping once for every mora while you speak. Five claps for o-ba-a-sa-n. That rhythm is what Japanese ears expect.

The Five Long Vowels in Japanese

Japanese has five vowels: a, i, u, e, o. Each of them can be lengthened. Here is how each long vowel sounds and where you encounter it.

ああ — Long A

The long a sound holds the ah vowel for two beats. In hiragana words, it is written as aa (ああ). Examples:

• おかあさん（お母さん） — mother (o-ka-a-sa-n)
• おばあさん — grandmother (o-ba-a-sa-n)
• ああ — Ah! / Oh! (used as an expression of realization)

The sound: open your mouth wide for the ah sound and hold it for two full beats without moving your mouth. Think of the English “ah” at the doctor — just hold it twice as long.

いい — Long I

The long i sound holds the ee vowel for two beats. Written as ii (いい). Examples:

• いい — good / fine (i-i)
• おにいさん（お兄さん） — older brother (o-ni-i-sa-n)
• おいしい（美味しい） — delicious (o-i-shi-i — the final い extends the i for a long i ending)

The sound: the corners of your mouth spread slightly for the ee sound. Hold that position for two beats. Do not glide into a “y” sound the way English sometimes does with “ee-yuh.”

うう — Long U

The long u sound holds the oo vowel for two beats. Written as uu (うう). Examples:

• くうき（空気） — air (ku-u-ki)
• すうがく（数学） — mathematics (su-u-ga-ku)
• じゆう（自由） — freedom (ji-yu-u)

Note: the Japanese u sound is not a rounded “oo” like the English word “moon.” Japanese u is unrounded — your lips stay relaxed rather than forming a circle. Hold this unrounded sound for two beats.

ええ / えい — Long E

The long e sound is where things get interesting for spelling. It can be written two ways in hiragana:

• ええ (ee) — a direct doubling of the e vowel, used in some words and exclamations
• えい (ei) — historically this represented an “e+i” diphthong, but in modern standard Japanese it is pronounced as a long ee sound

Examples of えい words pronounced as long ee:

• えいが（映画） — movie (e-i-ga, pronounced “ee-ga”)
• せんせい（先生） — teacher (se-n-se-i, pronounced “sen-see”)
• けいたい（携帯） — mobile phone (ke-i-ta-i)

Examples of ええ:

• ええ — Yes (more formal/surprised than うん; e-e)
• おねえさん（お姉さん） — older sister (o-ne-e-sa-n)

In both cases, you produce a single long ee sound for two morae. Do not try to say a separate “e” and then an “i” — just hold the ee.

おお / おう — Long O

The long o sound is similarly spelled two ways in hiragana:

• おお (oo) — a direct doubling of the o vowel
• おう (ou) — historically represented “o+u,” but in modern standard Japanese is pronounced as a long o

Examples of おう words pronounced as long o:

• おう（王） — king (o-u, long o)
• こうこう（高校） — high school (ko-u-ko-u)
• どうぞ — please / go ahead (do-u-zo)
• ありがとうございます — thank you (a-ri-ga-to-u-go-za-i-ma-su)

Examples of おお words:

• おおきい（大きい） — big (o-o-ki-i)
• とおい（遠い） — far (to-o-i)
• おおさか（大阪） — Osaka (o-o-sa-ka)

The Japanese o is a pure mid-back vowel — not the English “oh” glide (which slides toward “w”). In Japanese, you hold o steadily for two beats without rounding your lips further or gliding into “w.”

Why Spelling and Pronunciation Do Not Always Feel Obvious

The existence of ei and ou as spellings for long ee and long o can confuse beginners who try to pronounce each letter separately. The key rule for standard Tokyo Japanese (which JLPT and most learning materials are based on) is:

• えい → long ee (not “e” + “i” as two separate sounds)
• おう → long o (not “o” + “u” as two separate sounds)

Some dialects (notably Kansai/Osaka dialect) do pronounce these as distinct sounds, but for JLPT and standard communication, treat them as long vowels.

Long Vowels in Hiragana

Now let us look at how long vowels are written systematically in hiragana. The rules follow a clear pattern once you know them.

A-row Long Vowels

To write a long a sound after an a-row hiragana, add あ.

I-row Long Vowels

To write a long i sound after an i-row hiragana, add い.

U-row Long Vowels

To write a long u sound after a u-row hiragana, add う.

E-row: えい and ええ

This is where the system has two patterns:

• After an e-row hiragana, most long e sounds are written with い (not え)
• A small number of words use え directly

O-row: おう and おお

Similarly, the long o has two spelling patterns:

• After an o-row hiragana, most long o sounds are written with う
• A smaller set of words use お directly

Common Beginner Spelling Traps

New learners frequently make these spelling errors when writing long vowels in hiragana:

• Writing とうきょうo as とおきょお — the ou pattern is more common than oo, and beginners sometimes apply the wrong one
• Writing せんせい as せんせえ — nearly all words with a long ee after an e-row character use ei, not ee
• Writing おにいさん as おにいさん correctly — but forgetting the doubled i entirely: おにさん (which is not the word for brother)
• Omitting the long vowel altogether in words like どうぞ, writing どぞ

The consistent rule: when you see a hiragana word with a doubled vowel marker (ああ, いい, うう, ええ, おお) or an ei or ou combination after same-row hiragana, pronounce it as a two-mora long vowel.

Yuka

So when I see とうきょう, I should not say “to-u-kyo-u” as four separate sounds? I should just say “to-kyo” with a long o at the end?

Rei

Exactly right. とうきょう is four morae: to-o-kyo-o. Each hiragana takes one beat, so the word has four beats total — with the first and last morae both being the long o sound. What you hear as “Tokyo” in English compresses this, but in Japanese the length is there in every pronunciation.

Long Vowels in Katakana

Katakana makes long vowels dramatically easier to recognize. Instead of spelling out the second mora as another hiragana character (and having to know whether to use u or o), katakana uses a single dedicated symbol: ー.

What the Long Vowel Mark ー Means

The ー symbol (called ちょうおんぷ（長音符）, the long vowel mark) simply means “extend the previous vowel by one more mora.” It does not specify which vowel — that depends entirely on what comes before it. You read the preceding character and hold that vowel for one extra beat.

This makes katakana long vowels genuinely easy once you know the symbol:

• コ has an o vowel. コー = long o.
• タ has an a vowel. ター = long a.
• ス has a u vowel. スー = long u.
• カ has an a vowel. カー = long a.

コーヒー (Coffee)

コーヒー — ko-o-hi-i — coffee

This word has four morae. The first ー extends ko into a long o. The second ー extends hi into a long i. Say it: koo-hii. English speakers often say “KOH-fee” (three syllables with an English “f” and compressed vowels), which sounds noticeably different from the Japanese pronunciation.

タクシー (Taxi)

タクシー — ta-ku-shi-i — taxi

Four morae. The final ー extends the shi vowel into a long i. English “taxi” has two syllables; Japanese タクシー has four morae. Note especially the final long vowel — do not drop it. Saying タクシ (three morae) sounds cut off to Japanese ears.

スーパー (Supermarket)

スーパー — su-u-pa-a — supermarket (from English “supermarket,” but abbreviated)

Four morae. Both ー marks extend the preceding vowels. スー = long u, パー = long a. This word is commonly heard in everyday Japanese when referring to grocery stores.

カード (Card)

カード — ka-a-do — card

Three morae. The ー extends ka to a long a. You hear this word constantly: クレジットカード (credit card), ICカード (transit card), トランプカード (playing card).

Why Katakana Makes Long Vowels Easier to See

With katakana, you never need to memorize whether a long vowel is spelled with u, o, i, or a doubled character — ー does all the work. This is one reason why many beginners actually find katakana words useful for understanding long vowel timing: every ー is an explicit “hold this vowel one more beat” instruction. Use katakana practice as a bridge to internalizing the concept before applying it to hiragana spellings.

Minimal Pairs: Short Vowel vs Long Vowel

A minimal pair is two words that differ in exactly one sound — in this case, vowel length. Studying minimal pairs is one of the most effective ways to train both your ear and your mouth, because the contrast is starkest when the only difference is the one feature you are practicing.

おばさん vs おばあさん

This is the most famous minimal pair for long vowels in Japanese, and for good reason: the social consequences of mixing them up are real. Calling a 45-year-old woman おばあさん when you mean おばさん implies you think she looks like a grandmother. Both words are polite in their correct context, but they are not interchangeable.

ここ vs こうこう

The word こうこう has two long o sounds — both written with ou in hiragana. The total is four morae. ここ, meaning “here,” is just two morae. Hearing the difference requires you to count mora duration, not just identify the vowel.

とる vs とおる

Note that とおる is written with oo (おお), not ou (おう) — this is one of the words that uses the direct doubling pattern rather than the u extension pattern. You need to learn the spelling of each word individually for the hiragana case, but the pronunciation rule is the same: hold the o for two beats.

ゆき vs ゆうき

This pair is a useful one because the meanings are so different that context usually rescues you — but in listening practice, it trains your ear to detect the long uu versus the short u.

How to Say Long Vowels Correctly

Hold It for One Extra Beat

The core technique is simple: find the long vowel in the word, and when you reach it while speaking, do not move your mouth or change anything — simply hold the sound for one additional mora of time.

Practice with a metronome or a steady clap. Set a slow tempo. Say each mora on one beat:

• o — ba — a — sa — n (5 beats for おばあさん)
• ko — o — ko — o (4 beats for こうこう)
• ko — o — hi — i (4 beats for コーヒー)

When the mora timing feels physically natural, you can start to blend them smoothly without losing the duration.

Do Not Add English-Style Stress

Remind yourself actively: long vowel = longer in time, not louder in volume. Before you say any word with a long vowel, mentally label the doubled mora as “same volume as neighbors.” If you notice yourself pushing more air on the long vowel, consciously reduce the pressure.

Do Not Turn おう into English “Oh”

The English word “oh” is a diphthong — it starts as a mid-back vowel and glides toward “w” (technically transcribed as /ou/ in English phonology). Japanese おう is not a diphthong. It is a single sustained o sound held for two morae. Keep your lips stable. Do not let your lips round further at the end of the sound. The vowel quality is steady from start to finish.

Practice with Clapping or Tapping

A widely recommended technique for developing mora awareness is to clap or tap your finger once per mora while speaking. This makes abstract “timing” into a physical sensation:

• Tap your finger once for each mora as you say a word aloud
• Long vowels should produce two taps, not one
• Double consonants (っ) also produce one tap
• Final ん also produces one tap

Once you can tap consistently and correctly, try the same words at a slightly faster tempo. Build up speed gradually, keeping the mora count consistent even as speech accelerates.

How to Hear Long Vowels

Listen for Duration

When listening to Japanese, shift your attention from “what vowel is being said” to “how long is this vowel lasting.” This is a conscious cognitive shift at first. Instead of identifying the vowel quality (which is the same for short and long), you are timing it against the rhythm of the surrounding morae.

One practical technique: as you listen, tap your finger in tempo with the speech. Does the tap for a given vowel feel like it takes up two tap-spaces? Then it is a long vowel.

Compare Short and Long Pairs

Find audio recordings of minimal pairs — either from JLPT listening prep materials, or from a text-to-speech tool like Google Translate (switch to Japanese TTS and type the two words). Listen to them back to back, repeatedly. Train your ear to flag the duration difference before your brain consciously processes the meaning.

Use Slow Audio First

Native Japanese speech is fast, and long vowels can feel extremely subtle at natural speed. Start with materials that offer slow audio: JLPT N5 listening tracks, NHK Web Easy news (which uses a slower reading pace), or the slow-mode feature on language learning apps. At slow speed, the duration difference between short and long vowels is much more audible.

Then Listen in Natural Phrases

Once you can hear the difference in slow audio, move to natural speed. Listen to short phrases that contain known long vowels — not full conversations yet. For example, listen to a native speaker say ありがとうございます and consciously check: do you hear the long o in とう? Can you count the morae?

Why Long Vowels Disappear When Speech Feels Fast

At natural conversational speed, mora timing compresses — each mora takes less absolute time. Long vowels are still twice as long as short vowels proportionally, but the absolute duration in milliseconds shrinks. This is why advanced learners sometimes report “losing” long vowels in fast speech even when they hear them clearly in slow audio.

The solution is not to listen harder but to listen differently — calibrating to the tempo of the speaker and measuring vowel duration relative to that tempo, not relative to an absolute time count. With enough exposure, this becomes automatic.

Yuka

I tried tapping my finger while listening to ありがとうございます and I counted… a lot of taps. I was not sure where the long vowel was.

Rei

The word breaks down as: a-ri-ga-to-u-go-za-i-ma-su — 10 morae. The long vowel is in “tou”: the to is beat 4, and the u is beat 5, but together they produce a single long o sound. So you should hear beats 4 and 5 as one continuous o that lasts twice as long. Try tapping steadily at each syllable and notice that “to” seems to hold on before “go” arrives.

Common Long Vowel Mistakes English Speakers Make

Making Long Vowels Too Short

The most universal mistake: shortening long vowels to one mora. This happens because English does not distinguish word meaning by vowel length, so the brain flags the extra duration as redundant and cuts it. The result is that おばあさん becomes おばさん, どうぞ becomes something like “dozo,” and せんせい becomes “sensei” with a compressed final vowel.

Fix: record yourself saying key words, compare to a native speaker recording, and specifically look at (or listen for) whether your long vowels are actually twice as long as your short vowels.

Adding English Stress Instead of Length

Instead of holding the vowel longer, some learners push more air on it — making it louder and more stressed. This is the English stress reflex overriding the Japanese timing system. The result is a word that sounds emphatic rather than correct.

Fix: practice with deliberately flat intonation first. Say the word with every mora at identical volume. Add natural pitch variation only after the mora timing is stable.

Ignoring ー in Katakana

Some learners know intellectually that ー is a long vowel mark, but skip it in practice — especially in loanwords they recognize from English. “Coffee” is two syllables in English, so コーヒー comes out as ko-hi (two morae) instead of ko-o-hi-i (four morae). This is particularly noticeable in words like:

• スーパー said as “supa” instead of su-u-pa-a
• タクシー said as “takushi” instead of ta-ku-shi-i
• カード said as “kado” instead of ka-a-do

Fix: when reading katakana, actively pause on every ー and count it as a full mora. Do not rush past it.

Misreading おう and えい

Learners who have not yet internalized the ou = long o and ei = long ee rules sometimes try to pronounce each character separately: “o-u” and “e-i.” This produces two separate sounds where there should be one long vowel. It sounds stilted and can confuse native listeners.

Fix: memorize the rule as a rule, not just an observation. Whenever you see おう in a hiragana word, your brain should immediately output “long o.” Same for えい = “long ee.” Drill this with flashcards or reading practice until it is automatic.

Not Hearing the Difference in Native Speech

Some learners can produce long vowels correctly in isolated words but lose track of them in connected natural speech. This is a listening processing issue rather than a production issue — the brain is not yet calibrated to measure relative mora duration at native speed.

Fix: extensive listening to natural Japanese with a conscious focus on mora timing. Podcasts for Japanese learners (many of which use clear, slightly slowed pronunciation) are a good bridge before moving to fully natural-speed content.

Thinking Meaning Will Always Be Clear from Context

Some learners reason that context will disambiguate short and long vowels in real conversation — so why worry? This is partially true for some pairs (ゆき and ゆうき rarely appear in the same context), but it is dangerously false for others. おばさん and おばあさん appear in very similar contexts (both when meeting a woman in a home), and getting it wrong is socially awkward.

Moreover, native speakers notice incorrect vowel length even when they understand you — it marks your speech as non-native in a way that other errors sometimes do not. Accurate mora timing is a hallmark of clear, respected Japanese pronunciation.

Long Vowels in Real Japanese Phrases

Let us apply everything you have learned to real-world phrases you will use from day one of speaking Japanese. For each phrase, the long vowel is marked in bold and explained.

おはようございます (Good Morning)

おはようございます — o-ha-yo-u-go-za-i-ma-su (9 morae)

The long vowel is in よう (you): the yo is one mora, and the u extends it to a long o. So the word is not “o-ha-yo-go-za-i-ma-su” (8 morae) — it is 9 morae, with “yo-u” together giving a sustained yoo sound. Listen carefully: the “yo-u” together (two beats) is noticeably longer than any single mora around it.

ありがとうございます (Thank You)

ありがとうございます — a-ri-ga-to-u-go-za-i-ma-su (10 morae)

The long vowel is in とう (tou): the to is one mora, the u extends it to a long o. The word is 10 morae total. This is one of the first phrases learners memorize, and one of the first where long vowel timing is often wrong. Make sure the “to” holds for two beats before the “go” arrives.

どうぞ (Please / Go Ahead)

どうぞ — do-u-zo (3 morae)

The long vowel is in どう (dou): do + u = long o. The word is short — only three morae — but that first long o takes up two of them. English speakers often compress this to “do-zo” (two morae), cutting the word significantly short. Hold the doo before moving to zo.

コーヒーをください (Coffee, Please)

コーヒーをください — ko-o-hi-i-wo-ku-da-sa-i

This phrase contains two long vowels in コーヒー: the first ー extends ko to a long o, and the second ー extends hi to a long i. Say it as: koo-hii-o-ku-da-sa-i. Both the first and third morae are held for two beats.

タクシーで行きます (I Will Go by Taxi)

タクシーで行きます — ta-ku-shi-i-de-i-ki-ma-su

The long vowel is the final ー in タクシー: shi + i = long i (shii). Extend the shi sound for two beats before saying de. Without the long vowel, タクシ sounds abrupt and unnatural.

高校に行きます (I Go to High School)

こうこうに行きます — ko-o-ko-o-ni-i-ki-ma-su

This sentence contains two long vowels in こうこう: both こう (kou) patterns produce long o. Say it as: koo-koo-ni-i-ki-ma-su. Compare this with ここに行きます (I go here): ko-ko-ni-i-ki-ma-su — the first two morae are short, not long. The contrast between ここ and こうこう is a perfect illustration of how mora timing changes meaning entirely.

Yuka

I just realized I have been saying ありがとうございます wrong for months. I was saying it like “a-ri-ga-to-go-za-i-ma-su” without holding the “to” at all!

Rei

Very common! And native speakers understand you — context is clear. But now that you know, your pronunciation will become much more natural. Practice it slowly 10 times today with the extra beat on “tou,” and it will start to feel automatic within a few days.

4-Minute Long Vowel Practice Routine

Consistent short practice beats occasional long study sessions for pronunciation skills. This routine is designed to take exactly five minutes and can be done daily.

Minute 1: Short vs Long Vowel Pairs

Say each pair aloud, tapping your finger for every mora:

• おばさん (4 taps) / おばあさん (5 taps)
• ゆき (2 taps) / ゆうき (3 taps)
• ここ (2 taps) / こうこう (4 taps)
• とる (2 taps) / とおる (3 taps)

Say each pair three times, then swap — say the long version first, then the short. Focus purely on timing, not meaning.

Minute 2: Hiragana Long Vowels

Read these words aloud, pausing on each long vowel:

• おかあさん — o-ka-a-sa-n
• せんせい — se-n-se-i
• おおきい — o-o-ki-i
• とうきょう — to-u-kyo-u
• じゆう — ji-yu-u

Say each word twice: once very slowly with exaggerated mora timing, then once at normal speed while maintaining the length.

Minute 3: Katakana Words with ー

Read these words, counting each ー as a full mora:

• コーヒー (4 morae: ko-o-hi-i)
• タクシー (4 morae: ta-ku-shi-i)
• スーパー (4 morae: su-u-pa-a)
• カード (3 morae: ka-a-do)
• ゲーム (3 morae: ge-e-mu)

For extra challenge, write them out in romaji with mora boundaries marked (ko-o-hi-i) before speaking them.

Minute 4: Phrase Recognition

Listen to (or read aloud) these phrases and identify every long vowel in each one. Count total morae for each phrase:

• おはようございます — where is the long vowel? (よう)
• ありがとうございます — where is the long vowel? (とう)
• どうぞよろしく — how many long vowels? (どう and よ…wait — よろしく has no long vowel)
• コーヒーをください — how many long vowels? (Two: コー and ヒー)

Quick Quiz

Test yourself. Try to answer before reading the answers.

Part 1: Spelling Quiz

How do you write the long o sound in hiragana after こ?

• A) こあ
• B) こう
• C) こい
• D) こえ

Answer: B) こう — the long o after an o-row hiragana is written with う in most words.

How do you write the long ee sound in hiragana after せ?

• A) せい
• B) せう
• C) せえ
• D) せあ

Answer: A) せい — the long ee after an e-row hiragana is written with い in most words.

Part 2: Katakana ー Quiz

How many morae does コーヒー have?

• A) 2
• B) 3
• C) 4
• D) 5

Answer: C) 4 — ko-o-hi-i. Each character including ー counts as one mora.

What vowel does ー extend in スーパー?

• A) The ー after ス extends u; the ー after パ extends a
• B) Both ー extend the o sound
• C) ー always makes an ee sound
• D) ー is silent

Answer: A) — ー extends the vowel of the preceding character. ス has a u vowel (su), so スー = su-u = long u. パ has an a vowel (pa), so パー = pa-a = long a.

Part 3: Meaning Difference Quiz

What is the difference in meaning between おばさん and おばあさん?

Answer: おばさん means “aunt” or “middle-aged woman.” おばあさん means “grandmother” or “elderly woman.” The extra a mora in おばあさん is the only phonetic difference, but the meanings are entirely distinct.

Which word means “high school”: ここ or こうこう?

Answer: こうこう — ko-o-ko-o, four morae, meaning “high school.” ここ means “here.”

How to Review Wrong Answers

If you got a spelling question wrong, go back to the hiragana long vowel table in this article and copy out the pattern you missed five times. Spelling long vowels correctly requires memorizing which pattern (う or お, い or え) each word uses — this comes with reading practice over time.

If you got a mora-counting question wrong, redo the clapping exercise. Count morae physically while saying the word until the count feels automatic.

If you got a meaning question wrong, make a flashcard for the minimal pair and review it daily for a week. The goal is to associate the mora count (not just the sound) with the meaning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which long vowel pair trips you up the most — おばさん vs おばあさん, or something else? Let us know in the comments below. Your question might help another learner too.

Recommended Next Articles

Long vowels are one piece of the larger Japanese pronunciation puzzle. These articles will help you build on what you have learned here:

About the Author

Daisuke is the creator of JP YoKoSo — a Japanese learning site for English speakers. Every article is written to explain Japanese clearly, with real examples, grammar notes, and practical tips for learners at every level.

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