Japanese pitch-accent sampler.
Pitch accent is one of those topics that sounds abstract until you hear two words with the same kana and realize they do not ride the same contour at all.
This page keeps the scope intentionally narrow: a small Tokyo-style sampler built around a few classic contrasts, with the following particle left in place so the drop is easier to hear.
Overview
Last updated April 15, 2026.
- Hear a small Tokyo-style pitch-accent sampler with classic contrast sets such as 雨 / 飴 and 箸 / 橋 / 端.
- Pronunciation problems get easier when the contrast is isolated and replayed in a narrow frame instead of buried in too much extra material.
- These pages are meant to move quickly from explanation to listening, so the ear can build a real category rather than a vague impression.
Japanese pitch accent is about where the phrase drops.
This page uses the Tokyo-style pitch-accent system, which is the reference system behind many learner dictionaries and pronunciation tools. That matters because Japanese is not tonal in the Mandarin sense, but it is not stress-accented like English either. The important question is not which syllable is stressed. It is where the pitch rises and where it drops inside a word or phrase.
A beginner mistake is to listen for loudness instead of pitch. Japanese pitch accent is mainly about high versus low pitch, and the contrast often becomes clearer once a particle follows the word. That is why this sampler uses tiny phrases like 雨が and 飴が instead of isolated dictionary forms. Some differences are hard to hear in isolation but much easier once the phrase continues.
There is also real variation in Japan. Regional accents differ, and even Tokyo Japanese allows some fluctuation in connected speech. So this tool is not claiming that one contour exhausts all living Japanese. It is offering a careful starter sampler: a few classic contrasts that show how pitch accent can separate otherwise identical kana strings.
The basic contour types behind the sampler.
drop after the first mora
雨が · あめが
The phrase starts high and falls immediately after the first mora of the noun.
drop after the word
橋が · はしが
The noun itself stays high through the end, but the following particle drops.
rise, then stay high
飴が · あめが
After the initial rise, the phrase stays high with no lexical drop inside it.
drop inside a longer word
common in three-mora and longer words
The pitch peak comes after the beginning but falls before the word ends. The classic short contrasts below focus on the easier two-mora sets.
Classic contrast sets with phrase-level contours.
Click any item to hear it. The high and low row below each phrase is a simplified teaching contour, not a phonetics lab trace.
あめ + が
One kana spelling, two different contours. This is the standard learner contrast for hearing how a drop changes meaning.
はし + が
This classic three-way set is useful because the written form stays the same while the drop position moves.
Can you hear where the drop lives?
Play the phrase first, then decide whether it was Atamadaka, Odaka, or Heiban.
Related reading
How To Write Japanese Hiragana and Katakana
A beginner guide to the Japanese kana charts, basic pronunciation, and full kana stroke-order reference.
Read articleMinimal Pair Pronunciation Lab
Hear Mandarin consonant and final contrasts, Korean plain-tense-aspirated sets, and the Japanese r-like sound in one place.
Read articleWhy Mandarin Has Tones but Japanese Does Not
A learner-oriented essay on the difference between Mandarin lexical tone and Japanese pitch accent, and why the contrast is real without reducing Japanese to a pitchless language.
Read articleChinese, Japanese, and Korean: Common Civilization, Different Languages
A long-form essay on how Chinese, Japanese, and Korean share a civilizational sphere without belonging to a single language family.
Read article