Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "だから" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce だから in Japanese?

だから is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /da.ka.ɾa/. It means “so / therefore.” da-ka-ra, three even beats with three identical a's and a single tap.

da-ka-ra, three even beats with three identical a's and a single tap.

だから /da.ka.ɾa/

dakara

Three slots built on the same vowel three times, which makes any unevenness glaring. Standard speech gives the word an early crest, but the durations stay locked together — the three a's should be indistinguishable from one another in every respect but pitch.

Listen: だから

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Sound it out

da A dental d — tongue on the teeth, not the ridge — into a bright short a.

ka The k carries no puff, and the a after it is exactly like the first.

ra One tap of the tongue tip and away, then a third matching a. No trill and no lip rounding.

Hear it in a sentence

雨だから家にいます。

Ame dakara ie ni imasu.

It's raining, so I'll stay home.

Listen: 雨だから家にいます。

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雨だから家にいます attaches だから straight onto 雨 with no pause: a-me-da-ka-ra, five continuous morae. English would break before "so"; Japanese runs it on. 雨 itself is a classic pitch-accent word, starting high and falling — the contrast with 飴 "candy," which rises, is the standard textbook example.

Where English speakers slip

"da-KAH-ra" stresses the middle and weakens the third beat, importing English rhythm onto a word that has none. Match the three a's exactly. Because the word functions like English "so" or "therefore," learners also tend to give it rhetorical weight and lengthen it — resist that; it's delivered flat and quickly.