Sounds · 3 min
The silent beat: sokuon っ
The small っ makes no sound at all. That silence is what changes the word.
A beat where you stop
The small っ (ッ in katakana) is called the sokuon. You do not pronounce it. You hold your breath for one beat and then release the next consonant sharply.
きって (stamp) is "ki — (stop) — te". Your mouth is already in position for the た, but the sound is briefly blocked.
In romaji it shows up as a doubled consonant: kitte. English has something similar across word boundaries — compare "black cat" with "blackout" — but in Japanese the pause is a full, counted beat.
How it looks in romaji
| Next row | Romaji | Example |
|---|---|---|
| か row (k) | kk | みっか (mikka, the 3rd) |
| ぱ row (p) | pp | いっぱい (ippai, full) |
| さ row (s) | ss | ざっし (zasshi, magazine) |
| た row (t) | tt | きって (kitte, stamp) |
Before ch, Hepburn writes t rather than cc: マッチ is matchi. This site also accepts macchi.
Length alone splits the meaning
- きて (kite, come) ↔ きって (kitte, stamp)
- いっしょ (issho, together) ↔ いしょ (isho, a will)
- かって (katte, as one pleases) ↔ かつて (katsute, formerly)
- おっと (otto, husband) ↔ おと (oto, sound)
Where it can and cannot appear
The sokuon does not go before any consonant. It appears only before the か, さ, た and ぱ rows — that is, before k, s, t and p.
It does not appear before the な, ま or ら rows, and it does not start or end a word. The exception is stylistic: manga and advertising write あっ! at the end of a line to show speech cut short.
In katakana loanwords it turns up constantly, imitating a short vowel in the source language: サッカー (sakkā, soccer), ベッド (beddo, bed), カップ (kappu, cup).