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Pronunciation question

Drafonis

後輩
29 Aug 2004
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I have been using Pimsleur for learning pronunciation, but I have a question. In most anime and other movies I saw, they always said "domo". But, the audio tapes for Pimsleur seem to say something closer to "doma". Yes, I'm sure it's supposed to be the same word (both Pimsleur and the fansubs translate it into "very", "very much".

For those who have Pimsleur, I am referring to level 1, lesson 3. An example of what I'm talking about is "domo arigatou gozaimasu".

Basically, I'm asking if it's supposed to be "domo", "doma", either from personal preference, or depending on situation.
 
domo (=doumo) is correct.

the do is a slightly longer sound, which sounds like the doo from door. the mo sounds like pot except is a m sound - mot? so the mo from mot.
 
You probably heard "doma" probably because of the "arigatou" that follows it. If you say it with a enough transition, it'll probably sound like it.

Keiichi

😊
 
okaeri_man said:
domo (=doumo) is correct.

the do is a slightly longer sound, which sounds like the doo from door. the mo sounds like pot except is a m sound - mot? so the mo from mot.
That must be an artifact of the Australian accent. It doesn't come out anything like 'pot' in American English. :p
 
wot? there's more than one way to say pot? surely not...

yes no american accents when reading my post please 😆
 
I've come across some pronounciation issues with Pimsleur as well. The one I worry about is ikaga, as in 'Ikaga desu ka', they pronouce it more like 'ikana'
 
That's probably the nasalized "g" sound that they use for the particle ga as well (i.e. "nga"). That's about all I could come up with for it sounding that way. Well, either that or poor recording facilities or techniques.
 
Yeah, I think so too. It's hard for learners to get (and even use) that "g" sound without hearing Japanese long enough because it's not really sharply pronounced.
nagai -> na-nga-i
ikaga -> i-ka-nga
 
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