Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "帽子" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 帽子 in Japanese?

帽子 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /boː.ɕi̥/. It means “hat.” bo-o-shi, three beats — the opening o is held for two, and the final vowel whispers.

bo-o-shi, three beats — the opening o is held for two, and the final vowel whispers.

帽子 /boː.ɕi̥/

boushi

Three beats, two of them a single held vowel at the front. The word is front-heavy in duration and back-light in voicing — a shape that feels unnatural to English speakers, who expect the strong part of a word to be short and the weak part to trail.

Listen: 帽子

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

Sound it out

bou A clean b releasing into an o that runs for two full counts. The u in the romaji marks length and is never voiced as a vowel.

shi A high, thin sh with an i that devoices at the end of the word, leaving mostly friction behind.

Hear it in a sentence

寒い日は帽子をかぶります。

Samui hi wa boushi o kaburimasu.

I wear a hat on cold days.

Listen: 寒い日は帽子をかぶります。

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

寒い日は帽子をかぶります opens with 寒い (sa-mu-i), three morae with an unrounded u and a bare final i. So the sentence asks you to keep two vowels apart and then, a moment later, to run one vowel for double length.

Where English speakers slip

"BOH-shee" shortens the long vowel, stresses it, and fully voices a lengthened final i. Hold the o for two counts without raising your volume, and let the closing vowel drop out of voice. Learners also glide the o toward w — keep the lips fixed for the whole two beats.