Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "会う" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 会う in Japanese?

会う is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a.ɯ/. It means “to meet / to see (someone).” a-u, two separate vowel beats with no consonant — and definitely not the "ow" of English "cow."

a-u, two separate vowel beats with no consonant — and definitely not the "ow" of English "cow."

会う /a.ɯ/

Two morae made entirely of vowels, which is precisely the configuration English cannot resist fusing. The accent falls on the first, so a is high and u drops, but the fall must not swallow the second beat. Two counts, two distinct vowel qualities, no diphthong anywhere.

Listen: 会う

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Sound it out

a A bright short open vowel, delivered as its own full beat with the jaw clearly dropped.

u The unrounded high back vowel as a second beat. The mouth closes from the a position to the u position, but this is a destination, not a glide — the u must be audible as a vowel in its own right, with the lips flat.

Hear it in a sentence

明日、友達に会います。

Ashita, tomodachi ni aimasu.

I am meeting a friend tomorrow.

Listen: 明日、友達に会います。

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明日、友達に会います conjugates it to 会います, four morae (a-i-ma-su) — and notice the base vowel changes from u to i, giving another vowel-plus-vowel sequence at the start. 明日 (a-shi-ta) opens the sentence with a devoicing-prone shi. So the line begins with a whisper and continues with vowels that must stay apart.

Where English speakers slip

Everyone's first attempt is "ow" or "ah-oo" with rounded lips at the end. English builds a diphthong out of any two adjacent vowels, and rounds its back vowels automatically. Japanese does neither: keep the lips flat throughout, and give the u enough time to register as a separate beat rather than as the tail of the a.