Question:

Why the ou? (Japanese)?

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I've noticed that people use o and ou interchangeably in Japanese. For example, Ohayo and ohayou. Why is this? Are they pronounced the same?

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  1. about good morning

    correct writing is 'o ha yo u' (4 syllables).

    ohayo is casual term or slang.


  2. Actually, the o and the ou do make a difference.

    Not only are they pronounced slightly different, their meanings differ a bit as well.

    For ex:   ohayo     vs     ohayo u

    If written in Japanese,     ohayo u would be the proper form, however, so many teenagers speak it fast and sort of like a slang that it was written as ohayo

    There are also many other words which fall into this category.


  3. they're  the same, and are pronounced  the same (in  the case of おはようとおはよ)

    other words might not be pronounced the same with long vowels,  like

    おばあさん obaasan grandma

    おばさん obasan aunt

    i guess with おはよ, it's personal preference. :)

    hope i helped!

  4. It's just two different ways of writing the same thing. The final "o" in "Ohayo" is actually a long (double) o, and in Japanese phonetics it is considered to consist of "o+u".  In other words, "ou" = "oo" which is sometimes written "o".  Got it?

  5. おはよう=Ohayou

    The last word "Yo" is a bit longer. If you are able to read the hiragana of "good morning" in Japanese. The correct pronunciation is "Ohayou" not "Ohayo". But, both are understandable of course.

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