Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "バス" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce バス in Japanese?

バス is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ba.sɯ̥/. It means “bus.” ba-su, two beats — and the final vowel usually devoices, so it ends on a hiss.

ba-su, two beats — and the final vowel usually devoices, so it ends on a hiss.

バス /ba.sɯ̥/

basu

Two beats where English has one syllable. The inserted final vowel is a genuine mora even though it is usually voiceless, so the Japanese word is measurably longer than its English source — the same pattern as ペン and パン.

Listen: バス

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

ba A clean b — one of the few consonants that transfers directly from English — into a bright short a.

su A short clean s with an unrounded u that devoices at the end of the word. This vowel exists only because Japanese cannot end a word in s.

Hear it in a sentence

バスで駅まで行きます。

Basu de eki made ikimasu.

I go to the station by bus.

Listen: バスで駅まで行きます。

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

バスで駅まで行きます contains 駅 (e-ki), which opens on a bare vowel, and 行きます with a devoicing-prone ki. So the sentence has two whispered vowels and a bare one, all inside about nine beats with nothing lengthened.

Where English speakers slip

Pronouncing the English word "bus" gives one beat and the wrong vowel — English has a central vowel where Japanese has a bright open a. Brighten the vowel, add a genuine second beat, and let its u devoice with the lips flat rather than rounded.