“S and TH” sounds for Japanese People

For Japanese people, it is challenging to distinguish S and TH sounds properly because we don’t have these sounds in the Japanese language.

Japanese has /s/ and /ʃ/sounds, but not /θ/

When we Japanese want to speak something with S or TH sounds in English, these sounds will be one of the below sounds. 

さ /sa/

し /ʃi/

す /su/

せ /se/

そ /so/

Japanese hiragana “s or ʃ” + five vowels (a, i, u, e, o)

In Japanese, there is no pronunciation of putting our tongue between our teeth. So, it sounds like “sousand,” when the Japanese say thousand.

Bus and Bath are the same for Japanese people

The most confusing moment of this issue is when the Japanese people say “I took a /basu/.” It could be “I took a bath” or “I took a bus.” If you visit Japan and have difficulty communicating or understanding Japanese-English speakers, it could be due to the S and TH sounds. Therefore, I would be grateful for your generosity. It is also difficult to pronounce THE /ðə/ sound properly either for Japanese. Below is the list of words, including S and TH sounds, which are the same sounds for the Japanese people.

S	TH	Japanese sounds
Bus	Bath	/basu/
Sick	Thick	/ʃIku/
Mouse	Mouth	/mausu/
Moss	Moth	/mosu/
Miss	Myth	/misu/
Mass	Maths	/masu/

We can’t pronounce “L” and “R” either. If you are more interested in the Japanese sound system, please refer to the below link.]

“R and L” for Japanese people