Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "間" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 間 in Japanese?

間 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a.i.da/. It means “during / between.” a-i-da, three beats — the opening two vowels are separate, not the diphthong of English "eye."

a-i-da, three beats — the opening two vowels are separate, not the diphthong of English "eye."

間 /a.i.da/

aida

Three slots, evenly cut, with the crest on the middle one. Two of the three beats are bare vowels, which gives the word almost nothing consonantal to hang on; the timing has to come from articulating each vowel to full length.

Listen: 間

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Sound it out

a Start with the mouth genuinely open: a short bright a taking a complete beat on its own.

i A short tense i as its own mora, arriving directly off the a. Two vowels, two beats, no glide connecting them.

da A dental d — tongue tip against the upper teeth — releasing into an a that matches the first one exactly.

Hear it in a sentence

会議の間、静かにお願いします。

Kaigi no aida, shizuka ni onegai shimasu.

Please be quiet during the meeting.

Listen: 会議の間、静かにお願いします。

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会議の間、静かにお願いします uses the word inside a longer phrase, and 静かに just after it has a shi that can devoice between voiceless sounds. So the sentence gives you a fully-voiced vowel cluster followed almost immediately by a whispered mora — two very different textures, same timing.

Where English speakers slip

"EYE-da" is what emerges: the first two morae crushed into an English diphthong with stress on it, leaving two beats instead of three. Give the a and the i separate pulses. Learners also tend to make the d too forceful — it belongs on the teeth, released quietly, not on the ridge with a puff.