How to say the name of countries/people in Japanese?

[LakeSan]

Hajimemashite!

I am from Singapore. So how do I say "Singapore" in Japanese?

How about all the other countries? Is there a website for this or something so I can learn how to pronounce them.

Also, names like Mary, David, Jack, Robert etc....

Any idea?

Arigato gozaimasu!

[Alan]

Hai, Lake-san

Foreign (non-japanese) words are written phonetically in Katakana. There's room for some variation. My dictionary provided:

Singapore　 シンガポール (shingapouru)

Mary 　メリー (merii)
David　デイビド (deibido)
Jack　ジャッキ (jakki)
Robert　ロバート(robaato)

アラン

[akira17]

For the name Jack, perhaps it should be ジャック(jakku)　instead of ジャッキ(jakki)？
ジャッキ　may be pronounced as Jacky instead.

[LakeSan]

Oh, I see. I should had thought that I could check them out in the dictionary! Silly me

Btw, what does this symbol means ー ?

I couldn't find any information regarding ー anywhere, is this katakana or higarana?

I figure it is used for pulling the sound longer? So how to actually use it?

Arigato!

[Alan]

'ー' stretches the preceeding vowel to double length. It is only used in Katakana. In hiragana, you just repeat the vowel again. However double 'o' usually becomes 'ou' to confuse matters a bit more.

Have a look here for more info on 'ー'.
http://www.kanjisite.com/html/start/kana/katakana06.html

You may like to take a look at the Hiragana & Katakana lessons from the top
http://www.kanjisite.com/html/start/kana/index.html

[Belton]

There's a fairly large listing of countries in katakana here. An interesting way to learn katakana I suppose.
http://japanese.about.com/blworld.htm

[Bueller_007]

'ー' ... is only used in Katakana. In hiragana, you just repeat the vowel again. However double 'o' usually becomes 'ou' to confuse matters a bit more.

This isn't exactly true... It is acceptable to use the dash in many native Japanese (i.e. hiragana) words as well. For example, 大きい＝おーきい and 応接＝おーせつ. You can't, however, use the dash in words such as 小売り (こうり), because the 'o' and the 'u' belong to different kanji. Whereas the 'o' in 講師 (こうし, こーし) is pronounced long (because the 'o' and 'u' belong to the same kanji), the 'o' in 子牛 (こうし) is pronounced short. There is no pause between syllables, but it should sound more like 'ko-ushi' than 'kōshi'. Thus, the dash cannot be used.

And it's actually not that difficult to tell when 〜お and 〜う are used to write long 'o'. 〜お is used mainly in readings of Japanese origin, and 〜う is used mainly in readings of Chinese origin. That means kun-yomi and on-yomi respectively. So 大きい is おおきい, 公 is おおやけ, and 多い is おおい (kun-yomi words). 応接 is おうせつ, 欧州 is おうしゅう, and 横断 is おうだん (on-yomi words). There just happen to be far more long 'o' sounds in on-yomis than in kun-yomis.

[LBRapid]

you can also look up names and locations using the multiple dictionaries at http://jisho.org/words


very useful dictionary built off WWJDIC

[Alan]

This isn't exactly true... It is acceptable to use the dash in many native Japanese (i.e. hiragana) words as well. ... You can't, however, use the dash in words such as 小売り (こうり), because the 'o' and the 'u' belong to different kanji. ... And it's actually not that difficult to tell when 〜お and 〜う are used to write long 'o'. 〜お is used mainly in readings of Japanese origin, and 〜う is used mainly in readings of Chinese origin.

Thanks, I've mostly seen 大きい written as おおきい in hiragana, but will now look out for おーきい as well

Not being able to use ー for double vowels split across kanji makes good sense. It had never occurred to me.

~お versus ~う as kun & ON readings is a useful hint, when trying to remember which are kun & which are ON. (For those few kun readings anyway). Great stuff.

Alan

[CrazySwayzee]

with alot of katakana words, you basically just turn the word into one that can be written in katakana and said in japanese

french fries becomes furaido poteto

hotel becomes hoteru

letter becomes retaa

I hope this is useful.