Fist I would like to address what the little っ is to anybody who may have seen it and wondered what it’s for – or doesn’t even know it exists! I will be not using romaji in this lesson so I recommend you to brush up on your hiragana before moving on.

In short, the little っ signals you to hold onto the consonant sound for the duration of one mora. As you may recall from your hiragana studies, the sound of each hiragana character should be for the same duration each and every time you say it. This span of time is called a mora (not to be confused with a syllable; you can find more about this distinction here)

Here are some examples of words with the little っ:

せっけん (soap)

きって (stamp)

いっぱい (full)

ゆっくり (slow)

いっさい (one year old)

Let’s take ゆっくり for a specific example.

If you were to read this without the little っ you would simply sound out every letter with the same tone at the same pace ゆ-く-り. With the little っ however you are going to be holding onto the “k” consonant sound in く with your tongue for one mora.

ゆ- っ -く-り.

I would like to clarify that this is NOT just a pause. Many sources will teach it as a pause and this is the incorrect way to practice it. It is very important that you hold on to that consonant sound. By “hold on to the consonant sound” I mean put your mouth in position to pronounce the sound, but don’t let air through. For all of the linguistics buffs out there, this is called “gemination“.

For the か き く け こ sounds, you will feel this in the back of your tongue. For the た ち つ て と sounds, you will feel it closer to the front. For the さ し す せ そ sounds you will actually pronounce the “s” sound for the duration of the little っ like you are pretending to be a snake.

The little っ is not just a polite suggestion. It’s a steadfast rule! If you neglect to pronounce it, you are changing the word just as if you omitted any other hiragana character. Treat the little っ with the same value that you treat every other hiragana character and you will save yourself some embarrassment in the future.

Here are some other fun uses for the little っ.

しっ！ (Shh!)

わっ！ (Boo!)

あっはっはっはっは！(Muahahaha!)

はいっ！ (A stronger, more confident version of はい)

I hope I cleared up confusion for some of you, and I hope I saved at least somebody some time and embarrassment with this article. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions LET ME KNOW! I would really love to hear from you.

If you found this article useful, please share it with anybody you know who is also studying Japanese, maybe they will find it useful as well :D.