Japanese has few individual sounds that are hard for learners, which is why accents in Japanese usually come from timing and pitch rather than from any single consonant. Every mora should take roughly the same time, so おばさん (obasan, aunt) and おばあさん (obaasan, grandmother) differ only by a held vowel, and きて (kite) and きって (kitte) differ by a pause. Words also carry a pitch accent: はし can mean chopsticks or bridge depending on where the pitch falls. Record yourself and the AI rates your accuracy, marks where pitch rose or dropped against standard Tokyo Japanese, writes your pronunciation back in hiragana or katakana so you can see extra or missing sounds, and suggests focused practice.
Example result
Input
A 50-second recording of a learner reading a short self-introduction in Japanese: name, hometown, job and hobbies.
Output
Overall: clear and polite, with an English-style stress rhythm that makes some words uneven in length. Pitch accent: 「日本」(nihon) was spoken low-high-high; standard is high-low-low (ni↓hon). 「大学」(daigaku) was correct as heiban. Long vowels: 「東京」 was heard as とうきょ (tōkyo); the final ō was cut to one beat. It should be とうきょう. Double consonants: 「ちょっと」 had no pause for っ and sounded like ちょと. R sound: 「趣味は料理です」 used an English r in りょうり; aim for a light tap, closer to the d in "ladder". Devoicing: 「です」 kept a full u; it is normally whispered as [des]. Practice: clap each mora while reading, and shadow a native recording with pitch marks.
Scores
How it works
How Japanese Pronunciation Checker works
- 01
Record a passage or dialogue
Sign in, open the checker and record in the browser or upload audio of yourself reading Japanese. Textbook dialogues and shadowing scripts work well. Choose your preferred AI model before starting.
- 02
Pitch accent, word by word
The AI identifies the pitch pattern you used for each word (flat heiban, head-high atamadaka, or a drop in the middle or after the word) and compares it with the standard pattern.
- 03
Mora timing and special beats
It checks that long vowels (ō, ū, ei) get two beats, that the small っ creates a real pause before the next consonant, that ん counts as its own beat, and that you do not add vowels to consonants.
- 04
Individual sounds and the kana readback
It listens to the flapped r (ら行), ふ, つ, and devoiced vowels in words like です and すき, then writes what it heard in kana next to the expected form and ranks what to practice.
Use cases
Who it is for
Learners who never studied pitch accent
Many courses skip pitch entirely. Record the vocabulary you already know and discover which common words you have been saying with the wrong pattern.
Shadowing practice
After shadowing a native clip, record your own attempt and check whether your mora timing and pitch actually match, rather than guessing from memory.
JLPT learners preparing to live or work in Japan
The JLPT has no speaking section, so pronunciation often gets neglected. Rehearse self-introductions, interview answers or keigo phrases before you need them.
Anime and game fans learning by ear
If you picked up Japanese from media, check whether casual contractions and character voices have shaped habits that sound odd in everyday speech.
Tips
Get better results
- Read from a script with kanji or kana so the kana readback can be compared with the words you intended.
- Include words with long vowels, っ and ん; a passage made only of short syllables will not test your timing.
- Do not exaggerate pitch. Japanese pitch changes are small steps, and a sing-song delivery reads as a different error.
- Record at a natural speed, since devoiced vowels and timing slips only appear in connected speech.
- Look up flagged words in a pitch accent dictionary and re-record just those words to confirm the fix.
Limitations
What it can't tell you
The analysis compares your speech with standard Tokyo-based Japanese. Kansai and other dialects use different pitch patterns, which the report may list as mismatches even when they are natural for that region. Pitch accent judgements are AI estimates from audio, not a readout from pitch-tracking software, and they are less reliable on noisy or very quiet recordings. The scores do not map to a JLPT level.
Frequently Asked Questions
Japanese Pronunciation Checker questions
Does Japanese pitch accent really matter?
Most mistakes will not stop you being understood, since context usually resolves pairs like 箸 (chopsticks) and 橋 (bridge). But wrong pitch is one of the main reasons learners sound foreign even with good grammar, and in a few pairs it does cause confusion. The checker shows which of your words are off so you can decide how much to work on it.
How does the Japanese pitch accent checker mark patterns?
For each flagged word it describes where the pitch was high and low in your version, notes where the drop should occur in the standard pattern, and names the pattern type, such as heiban (flat) or atamadaka (high first mora).
What is a mora and why does timing matter?
A mora is a beat of equal length. か is one, かあ is two, かっか is three, and ほん is two because ん is its own beat. Shortening a long vowel or skipping the pause for っ changes the word, so ビル (building) and ビール (beer) must be kept apart.
How should the Japanese r sound?
It is a quick tap of the tongue tip just behind the upper teeth, somewhere between an English r, l and d. It is not a rolled r and not a curled English r. The report points out words in the ら, り, る, れ, ろ row where yours drifted.
Can I use it for Japanese pronunciation practice every day?
Yes. A short daily recording of the same kind of material, compared week to week, shows whether your pitch_accent and mora_timing scores are trending up. Each check uses credits from a paid plan.
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Japanese Pronunciation Checker uses credits from a paid LindaleAI plan. See pricing