っ What does Small Tsu Sound like?

What does the small tsu sound like? Basically the small tsu is a double consonant. It sounds like whatever sound follows it. If it is followed by k, it will sound like k, if it is followed by p it will sound like p and so on. A double kk sound in Japanese would sound like the ‘k c‘ in bookcase  Here you can clearly hear there is a stop to pronounce both k and c.

Japanese does not combine Double Consonants like English

Except for compound words like bookcase and words with prefixes like midday, English does not pronounce the double consonant sound. Though, in Japanese, it is very common. In the examples below, adding just one more consonant will make a different word. 

How the Small Tsu is used in Japanese

You write the small tsu with っ which is a smaller version of つ pronounced tsu. In Japanese the small tsu is known as the 促音そくおん. The sound never comes at the beginning of a word, nor before nasal sounds such as m or n, approximate sounds like w or y, vowels, and only in front of voiced consonants from recently borrowed words such as ベッド. This of course is bed in English.

っ sounds like a long vowel before Fricatives (s, sh, h)

Before s or sh, っ takes on the same sound of the following consonant. The result is a lengthened consonant sound where the small tsu is the same lengths as the next syllable.

For the h sounds in Japanese, はひへほ (ha, hi, he, ho) and ふ (fu) the sokuon will become h or f but this generally is only seen in a few foreign borrowed words.

Before Plosives(p, t, k) and Affricatives (ts, ch) っ sounds like a Silent Break

When っ is before p, t, or k it sounds like a break in the word. It is produced by making the shape of the consonant but stopping without letting any air out until the next syllable. English does this too when you have a cluster of consonants in a word like act where you don’t release the air until the t and only make the shape of c. The only difference in Japanese is that instead of having two different consonants, both are the same consonant.

Affricatives are pronounced the same as the plosive equivalents. Before つ or ち (tsu and chi) っ is pronounced as t.

The small Tsu is still unvoiced before Voiced Consonants

Small tsu will always be unvoiced even before a voiced consonant. So if it comes before g, z, d or b it will be pronounced as k, t, t, and p.

Conclusion

っ is not so much a specific sound but a syllable which changes based on its surroundings. Kind of like a chameleon changes it’s colors. Moving forward to learn っ make sure to listen to a lot of examples to hear it correctly in words and you will have no trouble pronouncing it correctly.