Small ya, yu, yo: combined sounds

びよういん (biyōin) is a hair salon and びょういん (byōin) is a hospital. The only difference is the size of one よ.

Japanese has sounds like kya, sho and ryu that no single kana can write. The solution is to write an i-column kana followed by a small ゃ, ゅ or ょ. The pair is read as one sound and takes one beat: き (ki) plus small ゃ is きゃ (kya). These combined sounds are called yōon. They appear constantly, in words like きょう (kyō, today), しゃしん (shashin, photo) and おちゃ (ocha, tea), and in many place names, including Tokyo and Kyoto.

How to build them

Take any kana from the i column except い itself: き, し, ち, に, ひ, み, り, and the marked ぎ, じ, び, ぴ. Drop its i and glide straight into ya, yu or yo. That gives 11 rows of 3, or 33 combinations, shown in the table. The kana with irregular sounds stay irregular: し gives sha, shu, sho; ち gives cha, chu, cho; じ gives ja, ju, jo. The ya row and the wa row never combine, and neither do the vowels on their own.

The size of the small kana matters. Written large, や is a separate beat; written small, ゃ joins the kana before it. Japan’s spelling rules ask writers to make the ya, yu, yo of these sounds small, and in print the small kana sits low and close to its partner. In handwriting, make it clearly smaller, about half the size, and tuck it into the lower part of the square. If a reader cannot tell the sizes apart, びょういん (hospital) turns into びよういん (hair salon).

Counting beats

A yōon is one beat, however many letters it uses. Clap through the two words: び, よ, う, い, ん is five beats for hair salon, and びょ, う, い, ん is four for hospital. The same counting separates ひやく (hiyaku, a leap) from ひゃく (hyaku, hundred), and じゆう (jiyū, freedom) from じゅう (jū, ten). When you listen, notice whether the y-sound arrives in the same beat as the consonant or in a beat of its own. Your clapping hand will hear the difference before your ear does.

Romanization writes these sounds the way they are said, which can hide the kana. In the 2025 official table しゃ is sha, not sya, and じゅ is ju, not zyu, so the spelling no longer shows that a small ゃ or ゅ is involved. English speakers sometimes split kyo into two beats, ki-yo, because English has no k-y cluster at the start of a word. Practise by saying ki-yo faster and faster until the i disappears and only kyo is left.