Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "朝" in Japanese?

a-sa, two short beats with two identical open vowels and no stress on either.

朝 /a.sa/

asa

Two slots built on the same vowel twice, which makes any English-style reduction obvious. Standard speech gives the word a rising, unaccented contour, so neither beat falls away and a following particle stays high.

Listen: 朝

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Sound it out

a The word opens on a clear a with the jaw down, standing on its own.

sa Crisp s, then an a of exactly the same quality and length as the first. Consecutive matching vowels are where English instinctively differentiates.

Hear it in a sentence

朝ご飯を食べましたか。

Asagohan o tabemashita ka?

Did you eat breakfast?

Listen: 朝ご飯を食べましたか。

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朝ご飯を食べましたか compounds it into 朝ご飯 (a-sa-go-ha-n), five morae ending in a moraic nasal. The compound keeps 朝's two beats intact at its head — a good check on whether you're shortening the word when it stops standing alone.

Where English speakers slip

"AH-sa" stretches and stresses the first beat while weakening the second toward a schwa. Both a's are short, bright and identical. Learners also lengthen the s slightly for clarity, which subtly stretches the second mora — keep the consonant as brief as any other in the word.