# ふ



## Sergin

how to pronounce *ふ, "hoo" or "foo" ?(English pronounciation standard pls.)*

Thanks


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## Reicita

ふ”FOO", the sound "hoo" doesn't exist. ほ would be "ho"


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## amuro

Try to pronounce "A I U E O" first~  according to romajin list,* ふ *shall be pronounced as FU, which is combine by a surd "F", and a vowel " U "~

"U " shall be pronounced as " oo ", eg. w"oo"d, c"ou"ld,  but shorter and lighter~~

" F " shall be pronounced as a casual surd " F " , eg. "f"ine

"FU"  ==  FOO, thats correct, just try to treat this combination as 1 surd, try to make it little more...fluent...rather than pronouncing as "FOO" -T ( try not to let your upper teeth reach down to underlip when you pronounce it )


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## Sergin

Thanks, because of  は　ひ　ふ　へ　ほ is known as ha hi hu he ho
I'm confused by the symbol, cuz I hear that ナイフ（knife） sounds  "fu" sound.


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## Flaminius

Sergin said:


> Thanks, because of  は　ひ　ふ　へ　ほ is known as ha hi hu he ho
> I'm confused by the symbol, because I hear that ナイフ（knife） sounds  "fu" sound.


Please use standard language (as opposed to chat-speak) in all posts in these fora (#22; cf. Rules).

It is impossible to describe ふ with "English pronunciation standard" because the consonant is not used in English.  Though it has two transliterations («hu», «fu»), they refer to the same ふ.  All «h» becomes a sort of «f» before «u», and there is no English «f» in Japanese (unless you are very meticulous about reproducing the sound for loan words).

Now, the consonant in ふ is [ɸ] or bilabial fricative.  Air current goes out of the mouth through almost-closed lips.  The lips are quite flat anticipating the unrounded Japanese /u/.


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## palomnik

Sergin, maybe the confusion is because there is a (pretty much substandard) variant Romaji where ふ is transliterated as "hu."  This was originally designed to maintain phonemic uniformity (i.e., _ha, hi, hu, he ho_ vs. _ha, hi, fu, he, ho_), because Japanese _f _is an allophone of _h, _but it's more confusing than anything else, at least for foreigners learning the language.

As Flaminius says, it's a bilabial fricative.  Purse your lips and blow air through them, which is different from an English or Chinese _f, _where your upper teeth touch your lower lip.


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## kaori

Sergin, I understand your confusion. Actually I believed I could perfectly pronounce "h" but later I realized for most Japanese,including me, it is hard to distinguish "hood" from "food".
Japanese ふ is introduced as "hu" (I think it's just because it is easier to make a phonetic matrix) but the real pronouneciation is "fu".


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## Flaminius

But, *kaori*, the real pronunciation is not [f]!  Perhaps you saying the notation «f» is better for transcribing Japanese ふ?  



> [F]or most Japanese, including me, it is hard to distinguish "hood" from "food".


This is so because both English words are loaned into Japanese as [ɸɯːdo].

The phoneme /f/ uses the lower lip and the teeth for articulation whereas only the lips participate in producing the Japanese ふ.  Or at least that is the standard in my neck of the wood (South Kantō).


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## kaori

> The phoneme /f/ uses the lower lip and the teeth for articulation whereas only the lips participate in producing the Japanese ふ. Or at least that is the standard in my neck of the wood (South Kantō).


You are right. The pronunciation of Japanese ふ is not same as [fu].
(I'm from Kantō too).




> This is so because both English words are loaned into Japanese as [ɸɯːdo].


By the way, I see the last part your sentence as "[ɸɯːdo]". Do I have to setup something?


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## sakurasaku

Thank you, Flaminius, for your detailed explanation.  I have been wondering about this.  I knew it wasn't the "f" sound, but I didn't know what it was called.

My sister laughed at me once when I was back home in Japan because I called a fork "foku" (with a long "o"...how do you type it???).  She said I sounded American.  Blah.


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## Flaminius

Hello kaori,

This site is just about everything you need to know about your PC to get it display IPA symbols (added to the resources as well):
http://ipa4linguists.pbwiki.com/


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## kaori

Thanks Flaminius, I'll try to figure it out!


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