Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "冬" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 冬 in Japanese?

冬 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɸɯ.jɯ/. It means “winter.” fu-yu, two beats — the "fu" uses both lips, not teeth on lip, and neither vowel is rounded.

fu-yu, two beats — the "fu" uses both lips, not teeth on lip, and neither vowel is rounded.

冬 /ɸɯ.jɯ/

fuyu

Two beats of matching size. Standard speech gives the word a rising contour with the drop landing on a following particle, so the melody resolves outside the word — but both morae inside it stay exactly the same length.

Listen: 冬

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Sound it out

fu The upper teeth never touch the lower lip. Bring the two lips close and let air pass between them — a soft breath, like easing out a candle flame. The u that follows has flat lips.

yu The glide and the unrounded u in a single mora. Two unrounded u vowels in a two-beat word makes lip position the whole game.

Hear it in a sentence

冬はとても寒いです。

Fuyu wa totemo samui desu.

In winter it's very cold.

Listen: 冬はとても寒いです。

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

冬はとても寒いです ends with 寒い (sa-mu-i), which contains a third unrounded u and a bare final i. So the sentence asks you to keep the lips flat three times in a short line, and to keep the mu and i of 寒い as separate beats.

Where English speakers slip

"FOO-yoo" is wrong three times over: an English f made with teeth on lip, and two rounded vowels. Take the teeth out of it entirely, spread the lips, and keep both beats short. The bilabial ふ is one of the most reliable markers of a learner's accent.