Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "病院" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 病院 in Japanese?

病院 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /bʲoː.iɴ/. It means “hospital.” byo-o-i-n, four beats — a palatalised b, a long o, a bare vowel and a closing hum.

byo-o-i-n, four beats — a palatalised b, a long o, a bare vowel and a closing hum.

病院 /bʲoː.iɴ/

byouin

Four slots, and three of them are things English wouldn't count: half a long vowel, a bare vowel following another vowel, and a nasal with no vowel at all. English delivers this word in two syllables; Japanese measures four.

Listen: 病院

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Sound it out

byo The b and the y-glide are simultaneous, not sequential: the tongue is already in the palatal position as the lips release. Saying "bee-yo" splits one mora into two.

u (length) The o from びょ is held for a second full count. One vowel, doubled in length, with no change in mouth position.

i A short tense i as its own beat, arriving off the long o with no glide. This is the beat that most often disappears.

n The moraic nasal, a full beat of resonance made far back with the mouth open.

Hear it in a sentence

今日は病院に行きます。

Kyou wa byouin ni ikimasu.

I am going to the hospital today.

Listen: 今日は病院に行きます。

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今日は病院に行きます opens with 今日, itself two morae with a long o, and closes with 行きます, whose ki tends to devoice. So the sentence has two long vowels, a nasal beat and a whispered vowel in about nine morae — a compact tour of Japanese timing.

Where English speakers slip

"BYO-in" in two beats is the standard shortfall, along with a split "bee-yo" at the other extreme. Compress the by into one gesture, hold the o for two counts, pulse the i separately, and hum the ん. Almost every beat in this word is one that English intuition wants to skip.