Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "台所" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 台所 in Japanese?

台所 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /da.i.do.ko.ɾo/. It means “kitchen.” da-i-do-ko-ro, five beats — the opening da and i are separate, not the English word "die."

da-i-do-ko-ro, five beats — the opening da and i are separate, not the English word "die."

台所 /da.i.do.ko.ɾo/

daidokoro

Five slots, three of which share the same vowel. The word's length comes purely from mora count — nothing is held, nothing is doubled — so it's a pure test of sustaining an even tempo across a long word without inserting a stress peak.

Listen: 台所

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Sound it out

da A dental d, tongue on the upper teeth, into a bright short a.

i A short tense i as its own beat, straight off the a with no glide connecting them.

do The same dental d again, now with a stationary short o.

ko Another quiet k, and an identical o.

ro The tip brushes the ridge a single time, then a third matching o.

Hear it in a sentence

いつも台所で料理をします。

Itsumo daidokoro de ryouri o shimasu.

I always cook in the kitchen.

Listen: いつも台所で料理をします。

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いつも台所で料理をします contains 料理 (ryo-o-ri), three morae with a palatalised r-mora, a long vowel and a tap. So the sentence pairs a long word with no length in it against a short word packed with difficulty — and both must run at the same speed.

Where English speakers slip

"die-DOH-ko-ro" fuses the opening vowels, stresses the third beat, and glides the o's. Separate da and i, level the emphasis, and freeze all three o's. Five-beat words are where English rhythm most wants to impose structure, and this one has none to impose.