Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "映画" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 映画 in Japanese?

映画 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /eː.ɡa/. It means “movie.” ee-ga, three beats — the "ei" is pronounced as a long e, so it sounds like "eega."

ee-ga, three beats — the "ei" is pronounced as a long e, so it sounds like "eega."

映画 /eː.ɡa/

eiga

Three beats, two of them a single sustained vowel at the front. The word is front-heavy in duration but carries no stress at all, which is the combination English speakers find hardest — they convert length into loudness almost automatically.

Listen: 映画

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Sound it out

ei Written as e plus i, but in ordinary speech it merges into a single e held for two full counts. This is one of Japanese's standard spelling-versus-sound mismatches, and it applies to hundreds of words.

ga A firm g opening onto a bright short a, often nasalised toward "nga" by Tokyo speakers in this word-medial position.

Hear it in a sentence

今晩映画を見ませんか。

Konban eiga o mimasen ka?

Shall we watch a movie tonight?

Listen: 今晩映画を見ませんか。

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今晩映画を見ませんか opens with 今晩, four morae with two nasals, the first assimilating to an m before the b. So a word with two hums is followed by one with a long vowel — and both kinds of extra beat are ones English would skip.

Where English speakers slip

Two errors compete. Some learners carefully say "e-i-ga" with two distinct vowels, which sounds stilted; others say "AY-ga" with an English diphthong, which is closer but still wrong. Ordinary Japanese merges them into one long e — hold it for two counts and keep the quality steady throughout.