Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "電車" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 電車 in Japanese?

電車 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /deɴ.ɕa/. It means “train.” de-n-sha, three beats — the nasal in the middle takes a whole count.

de-n-sha, three beats — the nasal in the middle takes a whole count.

電車 /deɴ.ɕa/

densha

One of the three units is a hum with no vowel. English reads two syllables and delivers two beats; Japanese counts three, with the extra time going entirely to the hum. In compounds like 満員電車 that nasal is even easier to lose, so it's worth over-holding at first.

Listen: 電車

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

Sound it out

de A dental d, tongue tip on the upper teeth, into a short front e held in one position.

n A beat with nothing but nasal in it. With a palatal sh following, the tongue moves toward the palate, giving the hum a slightly ñ-like colour before the release.

sha A palatal hiss combined with an a in a single mora — not "shi-ya." Lighter than the sh of English "shark."

Hear it in a sentence

電車で東京に行きます。

Densha de Toukyou ni ikimasu.

I'm taking the train to Tokyo.

Listen: 電車で東京に行きます。

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

電車で東京に行きます has 東京 (to-o-kyo-o), four morae made of two long vowels. So the sentence pairs a word whose extra length is a nasal with one whose extra length is held vowels — two mechanisms, four extra beats between them.

Where English speakers slip

"DEN-sha" in two syllables treats the n as a closing consonant and stresses the first vowel. Hum it as a separate beat instead. The e also drifts toward "day" in English mouths — anchor the tongue for its whole duration — and the sha should be lighter and further forward than the English sound.