Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "駅" in Japanese?

e-ki, two short beats — a flat "eh" with no glide, and a soft k.

駅 /e.ki/

eki

Two equally-cut units, with the pitch high on the first. Both vowels are short, and the word begins on a bare vowel with no consonant to anchor it — which is why English speakers instinctively lengthen it.

Listen: 駅

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Sound it out

e A short front e opening the word with no consonant in front of it. It must not drift upward toward the English "ay" — anchor the tongue for the whole beat.

ki A k with palatal colouring before the i, released without aspiration, then a short tense vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

駅で友達を待ちます。

Eki de tomodachi o machimasu.

I'll wait for my friend at the station.

Listen: 駅で友達を待ちます。

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駅で友達を待ちます contains 待ちます, whose chi is a light affricate, and 友達 with four even beats. So the sentence has a bare opening vowel, four flat morae and an affricate, with nothing long or geminated anywhere.

Where English speakers slip

"EH-kee" stretches both vowels and stresses the first, and the opening e often drifts toward "ay." Keep the tongue fixed for the first vowel, halve the second, and damp the k's release. The word should be over quicker than English intuition allows.