Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "電気" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 電気 in Japanese?

電気 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /deŋ.ki/. It means “electricity / (electric) light.” de-n-ki, three beats — the nasal in the middle is a full beat and comes out as "ng."

de-n-ki, three beats — the nasal in the middle is a full beat and comes out as "ng."

電気 /deŋ.ki/

denki

Three beats, one of them vowel-less. It shares its shape exactly with 天気 (tenki) — same nasal, same ending, same three counts — so drilling the pair together makes both rhythms stick and highlights that only the first consonant differs.

Listen: 電気

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Sound it out

de This d is made on the teeth — tongue on the upper teeth — into a short front e anchored in one position.

n A full count of nasal. With a k following, the back of the tongue rises to the soft palate, so this is the "ng" of English "sing," held for a full count.

ki A k with palatal colouring before the i, released cleanly out of the held nasal, then a short tense vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

電気をつけてください。

Denki o tsukete kudasai.

Please turn on the light.

Listen: 電気をつけてください。

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

電気をつけてください uses つけて, opening on a genuine affricate, and stacks it before ください. So after a nasal beat, the sentence asks for a つ produced as one release and then four more even morae with nothing held.

Where English speakers slip

"DEN-kee" delivers two syllables with the n as a closing consonant and a lengthened final vowel. Hum the ん as its own beat, make it the velar variety, and halve the i. The e also drifts toward "day" in English mouths — anchor the tongue for its whole duration.