Small っ, long vowels and spelling rules

きて (kite) means come and きって (kitte) means stamp. The small っ adds a silent beat.

Three things in Japanese spelling are about length rather than sound: the small っ, the long vowel and the ん you met in unit 2. Each one takes a full beat. Japanese listeners hear length very clearly, and changing it changes the word. おばさん (obasan) is an aunt or a middle-aged woman, while おばあさん (obāsan) is a grandmother or an elderly woman. This unit shows how both are written in hiragana and how Japan’s spelling rules decide the less obvious cases.

The small っ

A small っ (a reduced つ) is called sokuon. It has no sound of its own. It tells you to hold the next consonant for one beat before releasing it. In きって (kitte, stamp) the tongue closes for t, waits a beat in silence, and then lets go: ki, (pause), te. In ざっし (zasshi, magazine) you hiss the s for a beat. In がっこう (gakkō, school) you hold the k. In ordinary words the small っ does not come before a vowel or before n, and it usually appears before k, s, t and p sounds.

Romanization shows the small っ by doubling the next consonant: kitte, zasshi, gakkō. When the next consonant is written with two letters, only the first is doubled, so ざっし is zasshi, not zashshi. The 2025 official rules apply this even to ch: the word for green tea powder is written maccha, though the familiar spelling matcha is still allowed on menus and packets. Long-established spellings in each field do not have to change.

Long vowels in hiragana

A long vowel is the same vowel held for two beats. Hiragana spells it by adding a vowel kana, and the official rules say which one. For a and i, add the same vowel: おかあさん (okāsan, mother), おにいさん (onīsan, older brother). For u, add う: くうき (kūki, air). For e, add え in a few words such as おねえさん (onēsan, older sister) and ええ (ee, yes). For o, add う: おとうさん (otōsan, father), がっこう (gakkō, school), ありがとう (arigatō, thank you).

Two patterns surprise learners. First, most long e sounds are written えい, not ええ: せんせい (sensei, teacher), えいが (eiga, film), とけい (tokei, clock). Many speakers say these as a long e, others pronounce the い, and the spelling stays えい either way. Second, a group of common words writes long o as おお instead of おう: おおきい (ōkii, big), とおい (tōi, far), こおり (kōri, ice). These words had ほ or を in their old spellings, and the 1986 rules kept the お as a trace of that history. There is no sound clue, so learn them as a list.

In rōmaji, long vowels get a line on top (a macron): Tōkyō, ōkii, kūki. The 2025 rules also allow doubled letters that follow the kana, such as Toukyou, and they accept the circumflex (ô) when a macron cannot be typed. In practice you will see plain Tokyo on maps and in English, with the length simply left out. Whatever the spelling, a long vowel still takes two beats when you say it.

は, へ and を as particles

Three small grammar words break the one-letter-one-sound rule. The topic particle is written は but said wa: わたしは (watashi wa, as for me). The direction particle is written へ but said e: がっこうへ (gakkō e, to school). The object particle を is said o. The modern rules keep these three spellings on purpose, so that each particle stands out in a line of hiragana. That is also why こんにちは (konnichiwa, hello) and こんばんは (konbanwa, good evening) end in は: each began as a phrase meaning as for today and as for this evening.