Small ゃ, ゅ, ょ: two symbols, one mora
きゃ and きや differ in sound and timing because of character size. Learn how small ゃ, ゅ, and ょ combine with the preceding character inside real words.
Read the combination together
きゃ, きゅ, and きょ are contracted sounds, each counted as one mora. Do not give き and small ゃ a separate beat each. Count しゃ, しゅ, しょ and ちゃ, ちゅ, ちょ in the same way.
With full-sized や, きや has two morae. Small characters are not just a space-saving convention: their size distinguishes pronunciation. Check it both when reading and when writing from dictation.
Count the morae in words
びょういん means hospital and has four morae: びょ・う・い・ん. びよういん means beauty salon and has five: び・よ・う・い・ん. The small ょ helps distinguish the two words.
りょこう (travel) has three morae: りょ・こ・う. If a contracted sound is followed by a long-vowel element, ん, or っ, each of those contributes another mora. Two written symbols do not always mean two beats.
Apply it to katakana
Katakana シャ, シュ, and ショ also use small ャ, ュ, and ョ. シャツ (shirt) has two morae, シャ・ツ; do not split シャ into シ・ヤ. Check the sound together with the meaning.
Cover the spelling, listen to a word, and count its morae. Then reveal the spelling and identify which two symbols form one sound. This helps uncover mistakes caused by counting characters instead of timing units.
Check: How many morae are in びょういん and びよういん?
Show the answer and why
びょういん has four morae and means hospital; びよういん has five and means beauty salon. Writing a full-sized よ instead of small ょ changes the word.