Japanese Language Stack Exchange
Japanese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [pronunciation]

発音. How the Japanese language i​s pronounced. For questions about which readings to use for particular kanji, use the "readings" tag instead.

How words and characters in Japanese sound when spoken aloud.

For questions on how particular kanji are pronounced, use .

This tag is for how particular words and classes of words are pronounced, as distinct from and , which describe general patterns of pronunciation in the language.

Related tags

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593 questions
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When is 行く pronounced as いく, and when is it ゆく?

Are there any rules or guidelines as to when to pronounce 行く as いく or ゆく? I looked it up on jisho.org, and the two pronunciations have the exact same definition. I tend to hear ゆく more often in songs, but that is just anecdotal.
syin
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Why do Japanese speakers have difficulty pronouncing "L"?

Why is it that native speakers of Japanese have a hard time pronouncing "l"? Whenever a western word contains "L" I see that they pronounce it "ru", "ra", "ro", "ri", or "re".
user1873
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Is it just me, or is "ryokai" pronounced "yokai" regularly?

I realize anime is not like real life. In any case, I have noticed for a long time now that when saying "roger", they sound like they are saying "yokai" when in fact there should be a "r" sound in the beginning. It seems like they drop the "r"…
Gara
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How do you pronounce the Japanese "r"?

How do you pronounce the Japanese "r"? Is it more like an "l" or something inbetween? Would there be any picture or video explaining it correctly, please link it!
Rolf
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How do Japanese pronounce microseconds (μ秒)?

From this sentence I read: これらの手法はクリティカルセクションが（例えば100μ秒以内などの）一定時間以内に終わるよう精密にプログラミングすることを要求する。 How am I supposed to pronounce μ秒 ? Should I pronounce it as "mu byou"? or "micro byou"? I also looked up μm (micrometer) and found that it is マイクロメートル.…
Chris
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13
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Does 連声【れんじょう】 still happen in the modern language?

I remember reading that there's a historical process called 連声【れんじょう】 which explains words like 天皇: 　　天皇　　　　てん＋おう　＝　てんのう 　　云々　　　　うん＋うん　＝　うんぬん 　　銀杏　　　　ぎん＋あん　＝　ぎんなん Does this ever happen in modern Japanese? For example, does anyone ever pronounce…
user1478
11
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2 answers

when is ん pronounced as "m"?

I've been initially told that ん is always pronounced like the n in pink. But I've been looking at this wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Japanese#cite_note-stop-2 And it is saying that the ん in words like せんぱい is pronounced…
Felipe Müller
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How do you pronounce "☓☓" as a placeholder?

I have come across the following in a piece of fiction (「永遠のジャック＆ベティ」, by 清水{しみず}義範{よしのり}): 「今日は上着を着ているためには暑すぎます」 ◯◯するには☓☓すぎる。つまり、暑くて上着なんか着ていられない、という意味だった。 As you can see, the bolded sentence is presented as an example of a Japanese sentence…
senshin
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10
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Pronouncing the ひ sound correctly

I've been learning Japanese for the past month and I have a few problems pronouncing the ひ sound (being a native Hebrew speaker and fluent in English I don't believe that sound exists in those languages). I've found that sometimes I would hear (or…
David Limkys
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9
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4 answers

Do ありがとう and ありかどう sound the same when you are whispering?

In my first language (Cantonese), we do not have voiced consonant sounds like Japanese. Therefore I have been struggling with the voiced and voiceless differences in Japanese. I wonder if that Japanese speakers use voicing distinction for…
FindingNemo
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1 answer

Is む sometimes pronounced more like ん?

I'm curious what the relationship is between む and ん. I have the feeling that sometimes, む is pronounced more like ん: むむむ: is this really /mumumu/? Or does it become /mmm/? うむむ: is this really /umumu/? Or does it become /umm/? I've spent more…
user1478
8
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1 answer

How is the Iroha poem usually pronounced?

I have read on Wikipedia that the Iroha poem has a modern version with updated hiragana and stuff. However, it seems that most times people recite the poem (as in, every time I've seen/heard someone recite it), they use the old pronunciation. If it…
FrenchApple
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Pronunciation of しゃ, し, しゅ, しぇ, and しょ

Now I understand that although all the morae mentioned in the title are written in Hepburn as "sha shi shu she sho", they are actually palatalized and sound quite different (the little や makes it clear). In fact since I speak Mandarin Chinese…
ithisa
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How is 'w' pronounced?

When I listen to "watashi wa", for example, sometimes I have the impression that the 'w' sounds like 'v' as in "vial" or "violence" in English (Similar to 'w' in the German Language). Nevertheless, I also have the impression of listening 'w' as in…
Ericson Willians
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7
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1 answer

Am I the only one who never says "少女{しょうじょ}"?

Only a tiny extension in the first syllable separates the pronunciation of "少女" and "処女{しょじょ}". No matter how skillful one might be, those without the ability to speak with the rhythm and flow of a native Japanese cannot help but to sometimes be…
user312440
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