Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "大丈夫" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 大丈夫 in Japanese?

大丈夫 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /da.i.dʑoː.bɯ/. It means “all right / okay.” da-i-jo-o-bu, five beats — a vowel pair at the start and a long o in the middle.

da-i-jo-o-bu, five beats — a vowel pair at the start and a long o in the middle.

大丈夫 /da.i.dʑoː.bɯ/

daijoubu

Five slots, and two of them are consumed by a single long vowel. This is a word learners use constantly and mistime constantly, because English delivers it in three quick syllables. Hold the jo for a genuine two counts and keep the opening da and i apart, and the length roughly doubles.

Listen: 大丈夫

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Sound it out

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

i A separate beat of its own. Fusing it with the a into "die" is the single most common way this word loses a mora.

jou A soft palatal affricate — tongue blade, not tip — releasing into an o held for two full counts. The u in the romaji marks length only.

bu A clean b into the unrounded u. The lips close for the b and then spread, rather than staying pursed.

Hear it in a sentence

心配しないでください、大丈夫です。

Shinpai shinaide kudasai, daijoubu desu.

Don't worry, it's all right.

Listen: 心配しないでください、大丈夫です。

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心配しないでください、大丈夫です pairs it with 心配 (shi-n-pa-i), four morae where the ん before a p closes the lips and comes out as an m. So both words in the sentence contain a vowel sequence ending in i, and both need that final i as a separate beat rather than a glide.

Where English speakers slip

"die-JO-boo" is the standard English attempt: opening vowels fused, long vowel shortened, stress dumped in the middle, and a rounded final u. Work through them in order — separate da and i, hold the o, level the emphasis, spread the lips. It's a five-beat word that most learners deliver in three.