LingoDrop
Japanese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "どう" in Japanese?
A single long "doh" held for two full beats — the u in the romaji marks length, not a separate vowel.
dou
Two morae inside one syllable. Standard speech gives it a high start with a fall across the vowel, but the length is what identifies the word — a short do is simply a different thing. Because it commonly begins a question, learners are doubly tempted to shorten it and add a rising English question melody instead.
Listen: どう
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
調子はどうですか。
Choushi wa dou desu ka?
How are you doing?
Listen: 調子はどうですか。
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調子はどうですか shows it in its natural home at the end of a question, running into ですか. Notice that 調子 also carries a long vowel (cho-o-shi, three morae), and that its shi frequently devoices between the voiceless consonants around it. So the sentence has two long o's and one whispered i in seven-odd beats.
Where English speakers slip
"Doh" — one short beat — is the near-universal version, because English doesn't hear vowel length as meaningful. Hold it until it feels like you're overdoing it. Watch the d too: English speakers put the tongue on the ridge behind the teeth and add aspiration, where Japanese uses a dental contact with a clean, quiet release.