Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "違う" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 違う in Japanese?

違う is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɕi.ɡa.ɯ/. It means “to be different / to be wrong.” chi-ga-u, three beats — the ga and u are separate morae, and the u is unrounded.

chi-ga-u, three beats — the ga and u are separate morae, and the u is unrounded.

違う /tɕi.ɡa.ɯ/

chigau

The melody rises to ga and falls; the three units are all the same length. The final bare vowel is the beat most likely to vanish, since English hears "gau" as a single diphthong. Say ga and u as separate pulses and the word keeps its proper three-beat length.

Listen: 違う

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Sound it out

chi A light affricate formed with the tongue blade against the palate, gentler than English ch, with a short tense i after it.

ga A firm g, then a short bright a. Many Tokyo speakers nasalise this consonant word-medially.

u The last beat is a lone u, lips flat. It arrives directly off the a, and the lips must stay flat throughout — rounding it produces an English "ow" glide.

Hear it in a sentence

この二つは色が違います。

Kono futatsu wa iro ga chigaimasu.

These two are different colors.

Listen: この二つは色が違います。

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この二つは色が違います conjugates it to 違います, where the u of the dictionary form becomes an i — so ga-i-ma-su, and the ga-i pair still has to stay apart. 二つ (fu-ta-tsu) earlier in the sentence gives you the bilabial ふ and an affricate in three beats. Plenty of separate gestures to keep clean.

Where English speakers slip

"chi-GOW" fuses the last two morae and stresses them, leaving two beats where there should be three. Keep the lips flat so no "ow" glide forms, pulse the a and u apart, and soften the opening ch — English aspirates it more heavily and makes it with the tongue tip rather than the blade.