Japanese speaker difficulties in English

This page is for Japanese speakers preparing for IELTS Academic. Pronunciation is the biggest part: the l and r, b and v, th, f and h, and si/ti/tu sounds; extra vowels; vowel quality; word and sentence stress; weak forms and linking; and intonation. It also covers the grammar and speaking habits that cost the most marks. Read the problems once, then do one lesson a day and go round the series again.

Pronunciation

L and R

Big effect on being understood.

Why it happens: Japanese has just one liquid sound: a quick tap of the tongue tip that lands somewhere between English l and r. So you use it for both, and your listener cannot tell light from right.

Two different tongue positions. /l/: the tip of your tongue presses on the ridge behind your top teeth and stays there while the voice flows. /r/: the tongue pulls back and bunches, and the tip touches nothing, and your lips are slightly rounded. In British English you say /r/ only before a vowel (red, carry), never at the end of car or door. Watch the clusters too: blue / brown, play / pray.

• Not “We walked along the liver.” (you meant river), but “We walked along the river.”
• Not “Please collect the answer.” (you meant correct), but “Please correct the answer.”
• Not “The grass is very green.” said as “The glass is very green.”, but “The grass is very green.”
• Not “It is a long way, but the load is good.” (you meant road), but “It is a long way, but the road is good.”

How to make it: For /l/, press the tip of your tongue on the ridge just behind your top teeth and keep it there. Keep your voice on and let the sound flow past the sides of your tongue. For /r/, pull the tongue back and up, but touch nothing. Round your lips a little. Say “la la la”, then “ra ra ra”. Feel the tongue touch in the first, and float in the second.

Extra vowels after consonants

Big effect on being understood.

Why it happens: Japanese syllables are a consonant plus a vowel, so English clusters get a vowel pushed in between, and words that end in a consonant get a vowel on the end (katakana style). School becomes su-ku-u-ru, and hand becomes ha-n-do.

Say consonants together with no vowel between them: skool, spring, glass. End a word on the consonant: stop the sound and do not add o or u. Past -ed adds a syllable only after t or d (wanted, needed); otherwise it is a quick /t/ or /d/ on the same syllable (stopped, called). Plural -s adds a syllable only after s, z, sh, ch or j sounds (buses).

• Not “su-ku-u-ru” (for school), but “school” (one syllable)
• Not “su-pu-ri-n-gu” (for spring), but “spring” (one syllable)
• Not “gu-ra-su” (for glass), but “glass” (one syllable)
• Not “ha-n-do” (for hand), but “hand” (one syllable)

How to make it: Get your tongue ready for the next consonant while you are still saying the first. Do not stop to put a vowel in. For the start of street, hold the hiss /s/, tap /t/ and slide into /r/ in one smooth movement. At the end of a word, stop the sound with your tongue or lips and keep your mouth almost closed. No o, no u. Clap once for each syllable: stopped gets one clap, wanted gets two.

Sentence stress and rhythm

Makes you sound more natural.

Why it happens: Japanese gives each beat (mora) about the same time, so every word gets equal weight. English rhythm works differently: the stressed words come at roughly regular beats, and the small words in between are squashed to fit.

Stress the words that carry meaning: nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs and negatives. Say the small words (the, a, to, of, and, is, can) quickly and weakly. More small words between two stresses does not slow the beat; it just makes them quicker. Stress also moves to show meaning: the word that answers the question, or the word that corrects something, gets the biggest stress.

• Not “MY. SIS. TER. IS. STUD. Y. ING.” (every syllable equal), but “my SISter is STUDying”
• Not “I. HAVE. A. LOT. OF. WORK. TO. DO.”, but “I have a LOT of WORK to DO.”
• Not “CAN. YOU. TELL. ME. THE. WAY. TO. THE. STA. TION?”, but “can you TELL me the WAY to the STAtion?”

How to make it: Tap the table on each stressed word. Keep the taps at an even speed. Say the small words quickly in the gaps. More small words means faster, not slower. Make the stressed words a little louder, longer and clearer. Say the little words with a relaxed jaw. To answer a question, put the biggest stress on the new information.

The th sounds

Makes you sound more natural.

Why it happens: Japanese has no th. You replace it with the nearest sounds you know: s or z (sink for think, zis for this), and sometimes d for the voiced th.

Touch the back of your top front teeth lightly with the tip of your tongue. For /θ/ (think, three, month) push air out with no voice. For /ð/ (the, this, other) add your voice. Touch the teeth; do not bite. These sounds are in the most common words of English, so they appear in almost every IELTS answer.

• Not “I sink it is a good plan.”, but “I think it is a good plan.”
• Not “We have sree lessons a week.”, but “We have three lessons a week.”
• Not “Zey live in a small village.”, but “They live in a small village.”
• Not “It was a sick fog this morning.”, but “It was a thick fog this morning.”

How to make it: Touch the back of your top front teeth with the tip of your tongue. When you practise slowly, you can let the tip show a little between your teeth. For /θ/, blow air over the tongue. No voice: it is a soft hiss. For /ð/, do the same and switch your voice on. You will feel a buzz on the tongue. Pull the tongue back inside to say the next sound. Do not leave it out.

B and V

Big effect on being understood.

Why it happens: Japanese has no /v/. You reach for the nearest sound you have, /b/, so very sounds like berry and vote like boat.

/b/: close both lips, then open them with a little burst of voice. /v/: rest your top teeth on your bottom lip and keep the air flowing with a buzz. For /v/ your lips never close. Final /v/ matters too: leave, move, of.

• Not “I have a bery good idea.”, but “I have a very good idea.”
• Not “My sister works as a bet.” (you meant vet), but “My sister works as a vet.”
• Not “I will boat for the new mayor.”, but “I will vote for the new mayor.”
• Not “The ocean wabe was huge.”, but “The ocean wave was huge.”

How to make it: For /v/, lift your bottom lip up to touch your top teeth, gently. Push air through the gap and switch your voice on. You should feel a buzz on your lip. For /b/, press both lips together, then let them pop apart. Say “fff” first, then add voice to turn it into “vvv”.

Vowels: lack / luck, boat / bought, turn / torn

Big effect on being understood.

Why it happens: Japanese has five vowels, so some English vowels collapse into the nearest one: the wide and the relaxed vowels in cat and cup both become a; the vowels in coat and caught both become a long o; and the vowel in bird is replaced by a long a. Short ones like the vowel in ship can also end up too tense or too weak, so ship and sheep are heard as the same.

Check the mouth shape and the length. /æ/ (cat): mouth wide open, lips spread. /ʌ/ (cup): short, relaxed, mouth half open. /ɑː/ (cart): long, open, tongue low. /ɔː/ (bought): long and rounded, lips stay still. /əʊ/ (boat): starts in the middle and glides to oo. /ɜː/ (bird): long, lips loose, no rounding. /ɪ/ (ship) is short; /iː/ (sheep) is long with spread lips. Make a long vowel about twice as long as a short one.

• Not “Good lack with your exam!”, but “Good luck with your exam!”
• Not “I boat a new phone last week.”, but “I bought a new phone last week.”
• Not “There are fifty ship on the hill.”, but “There are fifty sheep on the hill.”
• Not “The tarn is on the left.” (you meant turn), but “The turn is on the left.”

How to make it: For /æ/, open your jaw wide and spread your lips, as if you are smiling at the dentist. For /ʌ/, let the jaw drop only a little and relax. The sound is short and low in the throat. For /ɜː/, keep your lips loose and slightly spread, and hold the sound long. Do not open to “ah”. Hold the long vowels (/iː/, /ɑː/, /ɔː/, /ɜː/) for a count of two. Keep the short ones to a count of one.

Word stress: longer and louder, not pitch alone

Big effect on being understood.

Why it happens: Japanese words have a pitch pattern: one beat is higher, but all beats have the same length and strength. English stress is loudness, length and a clear vowel, and the other vowels get weak. Words borrowed into Japanese keep Japanese accent, so computer goes in with the wrong stress.

Every English word of two or more syllables has one strong syllable. Make it louder and longer, with a clear vowel, and say the others quickly with a weak /ə/: baNAna, comPUter. Useful patterns: words ending in -tion, -ic or -ity are stressed on the syllable before that ending (educAtion, ecoNOMic, uniVERsity). Some two-syllable words change with the job: a RECord (noun), to reCORD (verb).

• Not “KON-pyu-ta” (Japanese accent), but “com-PU-ter”
• Not “BA-na-na”, but “ba-NA-na”
• Not “ED-u-ca-tion”, but “ed-u-CA-tion”
• Not “e-NER-gy”, but “EN-er-gy”

How to make it: Find the strong syllable and say it louder. Make it clearly longer than the others. Open your mouth for the strong vowel. Say the other vowels fast and small: /ə/. Pitch alone is not enough. Make the strong syllable longer and louder too, and let the other vowels shrink. Tap the table on the strong syllable as you say the word.

Small words: weak forms, contractions and linking

Makes you sound more natural.

Why it happens: Japanese has no weak forms, so you say to, of, can and was with full vowels. You also separate each word, and add a vowel after a final consonant. English listeners then hear a choppy stream, and you cannot hear the weak words when others speak.

Small words shrink: to /tə/, of /əv/, and /ən/, was /wəz/, for /fə/, can /kən/. But the negative keeps its full vowel: can’t /kɑːnt/, so the difference between can and can’t is in the vowel. Contractions (I’ll, I’d, they’re, we’ve) are normal in speech. Link words: a final consonant moves onto a vowel at the start of the next word (turn_off, an_apple), and did you becomes /dɪdʒə/.

• Not “I want TOO go home.” (to said in full, /tuː/), but “I want /tə/ go home.” (to is weak)
• Not “turn, off, the, light” (a gap between each word), but “tur-noff the light” (linked)
• Not “Did, you, see, it?” (four separate words), but “di-jou see it?” (did you → /dɪdʒə/)
• Not “I will wait” said with a full “will” every time, but “I’ll wait” (/aɪl/)

How to make it: Keep small words short and relaxed. The jaw barely moves, and the vowel is a lazy /ə/. When a word ends in a consonant and the next one starts with a vowel, slide the consonant over: tur-n_off. Do not add a vowel after the final consonant. Stop on it: turn, not turn-u. Practise with a beat: tap on the strong words and fit the weak words into the gaps.

F and H

Big effect on being understood.

Why it happens: The Japanese sound in fu is a soft breath blown between the lips, and it is the only place Japanese has an f-like sound. Your h before the u sound turns into it, so who comes out like “foo” and huge like “fuge”. Before i, Japanese h is also pushed forward towards a hiss, so he can sound close to she.

/h/ is only breath from the throat: open your mouth for the next vowel, and nothing touches anything. /f/ is made with your top teeth on your bottom lip, pushing air. Never blow between the lips. Some words start with a silent h (hour, honest), so listen, do not just read.

• Not “Foo is that man?”, but “Who is that man?”
• Not “It is a fuge city.” (you meant huge), but “It is a huge city.”
• Not “I could not fear the music at the back.”, but “I could not hear the music at the back.”
• Not “Every fuman needs sleep.” (you meant human), but “Every human needs sleep.”

How to make it: For /h/, open your mouth as if you are about to say the next vowel and breathe out like fogging a mirror. Keep your lips and tongue away from everything. Your teeth do not touch your lip. For /f/, put your top teeth on your bottom lip and push air through. No voice. Say “hhh, ee” (he), then “fff, ee” (fee) and feel the teeth appear only for f.

si, ti, di, tu: sounds that change before i and u

Big effect on being understood.

Why it happens: In Japanese, the sounds change when i or u follows: si is said shi, ti is chi, di is ji, and tu is tsu. You carry that habit into English, so seat becomes sheet and tea becomes chee.

Keep each English sound clean: s stays /s/, t stays /t/, d stays /d/, even before ee and oo. Sip is not ship, tip is not chip, deep is not jeep, and two is not tsoo. Keep the tongue tip flat against the ridge behind the top teeth. Do not slide it back to the roof of the mouth.

• Not “Please take a sheet near the window.” (you meant seat), but “Please take a seat near the window.”
• Not “The waiter gave me a good chip.” (you meant tip), but “The waiter gave me a good tip.”
• Not “The river is very jeep here.”, but “The river is very deep here.”
• Not “I have tsoo sisters.”, but “I have two sisters.”

How to make it: For /s/, put the tip of your tongue close to the ridge behind your top teeth and hiss. The tongue stays flat and forward. For /ʃ/ (shi), the tongue pulls back and the lips round. Notice that you do not need that movement for /s/. For /t/ and /d/, tap the tongue tip on the ridge and release at once. Do not let a hiss follow. Say “see, she, see, she” slowly, so the tongue moves forward and back.

Intonation: questions, lists and sounding interested

Makes you sound more natural.

Why it happens: In Japanese a question is marked by the little word ka at the end, and attitude is shown by extra words. English puts the meaning in the movement of your voice, so a flat voice in English sounds bored or cold, even when your words are friendly.

The main stressed word of each phrase carries a movement. Statements and wh- questions (Where do you live?) usually fall at the end. Yes/no questions (Do you live here?) usually rise. In a list, rise on every item and fall on the last: tea, coffee, and milk. A rise shows the sentence is not finished. To sound interested, make your voice go higher and lower on the key words. New information gets the main stress; things already said are quiet.

• Not “Where do you live?” said in a flat voice, “live” stays level, but “Where do you live?” (the voice falls on live)
• Not “Do you like cooking?” said with the voice falling, but “Do you like cooking?” (the voice rises on cooking)
• Not “I like tea. Coffee. And milk.” (all fall), but “tea, coffee and milk” (rise, rise, fall)

How to make it: Find the most important word in the phrase. Your voice jumps up or down on its stressed syllable. For a wh- question or a statement, let the voice glide down and finish low. For a yes/no question, glide up at the end. Think of a little hill. To show interest, open your pitch wide: go higher on key words, and lower at the end.

Grammar

a, an, the: an article for every noun

Why it happens: Japanese has no a, an or the, so a noun can stand alone. English wants a small word in front of almost every singular noun.

A singular countable noun needs a / an (new, or one of many) or the (you and the listener both know which one). Plural and uncountable nouns used in general need no article. When you mention something a second time, say the.

• Not We rented small flat near station., but We rented a small flat near the station.
• Not I bought a laptop. Laptop was expensive., but I bought a laptop. The laptop was expensive.
• Not She is teacher., but She is a teacher.
• Not The life is hard for the old people., but Life is hard for old people.

Plural -s and uncountable nouns

Why it happens: Japanese nouns do not change for one or many, and there is no count/mass split. So plural -s is easy to forget, and words like information feel countable.

Add -s when you mean more than one. Never add -s to information, advice, news, equipment, furniture, homework, traffic, rubbish. You cannot say an advice; say a piece of advice or just some advice.

• Not I have two brother., but I have two brothers.
• Not She gave me many informations., but She gave me a lot of information.
• Not The traffics are heavy in my city., but The traffic is heavy in my city.
• Not Furnitures are expensive here., but Furniture is expensive here.

Missing subjects and objects

Why it happens: In Japanese you can leave out I, he, it and they when the meaning is clear. A verb can be a whole sentence. English needs a subject (and often an object) every time.

Every English clause needs a subject and a verb. Use it for weather, time and general facts: It is hot in July. Keep the object too: Yes, I called them. If the subject stays the same, you can join two verbs with and: I opened the window and sat down.

• Not Finished the report and sent it to my manager., but I finished the report and sent it to my manager.
• Not Is very crowded on Fridays., but It is very crowded on Fridays.
• Not I bought a phone, but broke after a week., but I bought a phone, but it broke after a week.
• Not Did you call the bank? Yes, called this morning., but Did you call the bank? Yes, I called them this morning.

Don't forget be and the third-person -s

Why it happens: Japanese adjectives work like verbs, so there is no be. Verbs also do not change for he, she or it.

Every English sentence needs a verb. With an adjective or a noun, use be: My town is quiet. In the present, add -s after he, she, it, a name or nobody / everyone: She works. Nobody knows.

• Not My town very quiet., but My town is very quiet.
• Not This soup delicious., but This soup is delicious.
• Not She work in a bank., but She works in a bank.
• Not Everyone know the answer., but Everyone knows the answer.

Questions: do / does / did, word order and tags

Why it happens: A Japanese question is the statement plus ka, with the same word order. A tag usually becomes one fixed form.

An English question needs a helper and a new order: question word + helper + subject + verb. Where do you live? The helper (do, does, did) shows the tense, so the main verb stays plain: Where does he live? Inside another sentence the order goes back to normal: Could you tell me where he lives? A tag copies the helper and is the opposite: You live here, don't you?

• Not You need a ticket?, but Do you need a ticket?
• Not Where you live?, but Where do you live?
• Not Where does he lives?, but Where does he live?
• Not Your brother plays tennis, isn't it?, but Your brother plays tennis, doesn't he?

Relative clauses: who, which, that, where

Why it happens: Japanese puts the whole description before the noun and has no relative words. So learners either avoid clauses or build them the Japanese way.

In English the noun comes first, then who (people), which / that (things) or where (places), then the clause. The relative word already stands for the noun, so do not repeat it: the book that I read, not the book that I read it.

• Not I know a teacher lives in Spain., but I know a teacher who lives in Spain.
• Not The film which I saw it was long., but The film which I saw was long.
• Not The woman which taught me was kind., but The woman who taught me was kind.
• Not That is the café I met my husband in it., but That is the café where I met my husband.

Because, so and although: one complete sentence

Why it happens: Japanese conjunctions sit at the end of a clause like particles, so learners start a new sentence with Because or So and leave it as a fragment.

Because, although, when and if join a clause to a main clause in one sentence: We cancelled the picnic because it was windy. A sentence that starts with Because... and has no main clause is a fragment. So gives the result: It was windy, so we cancelled the picnic. Do not use although and but together.

• Not We cancelled the picnic. Because it was too windy., but We cancelled the picnic because it was too windy.
• Not Because the road was closed. We took the train., but Because the road was closed, we took the train.
• Not Although the room was small, but it was comfortable., but Although the room was small, it was comfortable.

The passive: be + past participle

Why it happens: A Japanese passive often shows that a person is affected by something (a “suffering” passive), and things are often described with an active verb. So English passives of things can feel odd, and the affected-person pattern gets copied into English.

Make the passive with be + past participle: The bridge was built in 1990. Use it when the thing matters more than the person doing the action. Verbs with no object never take a passive: The cat died, not The cat was died. When something bad happens to you, either say what you did (I lost my keys) or make the thing the subject (My keys were stolen).

• Not The house build in 1990., but The house was built in 1990.
• Not Her cat was died last week., but Her cat died last week.
• Not I was lost my keys., but I lost my keys.
• Not English speaks in many countries., but English is spoken in many countries.

Prepositions and phrasal verbs

Why it happens: Japanese joins verbs and nouns with particles, so English verb + preposition pairs are easy to drop or mix up. In a phrasal verb, a pronoun object also tends to go in the wrong place.

Learn the preposition with the verb or adjective: wait for, depend on, look forward to, good at, worried about. With a phrasal verb, a pronoun goes in the middle: pick it up, fill it in, never pick up it. A noun can go either side: fill in the form / fill the form in.

• Not We waited the bus for an hour., but We waited for the bus for an hour.
• Not I'm good in drawing., but I'm good at drawing.
• Not He turned off it before he left., but He turned it off before he left.

If, future plans and reported tenses

Why it happens: Japanese uses nearly the same form for real and unreal if, the plain present can talk about the future, and reported speech keeps the original tense.

Real future: if + present, will: If it rains, we will stay in. Unreal now: if + past, would: If I had more time, I would travel. Unreal past: if + had + participle, would have. For a prediction or a decision you make now, use will or going to, not the plain present. In reported speech move the tense back: He told me he couldn't swim.

• Not If I have enough money, I would buy a house., but If I had enough money, I would buy a house.
• Not I think it rains tomorrow., but I think it will rain tomorrow.
• Not He told me he can't swim., but He told me he couldn't swim.
• Not If she studied harder last year, she would have passed., but If she had studied harder last year, she would have passed.

Speaking style

Short, vague or silent answers

Why it happens: In Japan a short, careful answer, a pause or a soft opinion is polite, and fluent talk is not always admired. Giving a personal opinion at length may not be something you practised at school.

In IELTS Speaking, a one-word answer or a long silence gives the listener nothing to follow. Answer the question, then give a reason and an example: two or three sentences. Say your opinion clearly, with one soft phrase at most (I think). Do not pile up maybe, perhaps, a little, rather. If you need time, say That is an interesting question and then answer.

• Not “Do you like your job?” “Yes.”, but “Yes, I do. I enjoy meeting people, and every day is different.”
• Not “Is your city a good place to live?” “Maybe, perhaps, a little good, I think.”, but “Yes, I think it is, because it is safe and the trains are on time.”
• Not “Why did you choose this subject?” “Hmm... difficult...”, but “That is an interesting question. I chose it because I want to work in a hospital.”

Yes or no to a negative question

Why it happens: In Japanese, hai means “what you said is right”. So “You don't like fish?” gets hai when the answer is “right, I don't”.

In English, yes goes with a positive fact and no goes with a negative fact, whatever the question looks like. Decide the fact first. If you do not like fish: No, I don't. If you do: Yes, I do. The verb after yes or no must match.

• Not “Don't you have a car?” “Yes, I don't.”, but “Don't you have a car?” “No, I don't.”
• Not “Aren't you tired?” “No, I'm tired.”, but “Aren't you tired?” “Yes, I am.”
• Not “You haven't finished yet?” “Yes, I haven't.”, but “You haven't finished yet?” “No, I haven't.”

Sources

Problems chosen with reference to Learner English (Swan & Smith, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press), chapter on Japanese speakers by Ian Thompson. Explanations and examples are IELTS Laboratory’s own.