PA 101: Moras

Moras!🌟

In the world of Japanese pitch accents, these are the basic units of sound (a Japanese equivalent of a syllable) and can have either a low or high pitch.
What is a considered a single mora? Anything that you see here in this list.

Don't worry!  You won't need to memorize all of this. 
Basically, it boils down to 1 hiragana = 1 mora. The exceptions are as follows:

1. Any hiragana combo with a small や、ゆ、よ because typically they become one sound when contracted with the "main" hirgana such as しょ、しゅ、ひょ　etc. Thus, the word しゃもじ has only 3 moras.
2. The small っ such as in かっとう. The word かっとう would therefore have 4 moras.
3. Extensions (ー) that you see in Katakana also count as 1 mora such as ターゲット which has 5 moras.

Let's look at some examples:

Check out the quiz to test your understanding 😁