How to Pronounce '元気': Japanese Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce 元気 in Japanese?

元気 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɡen.ki/. It means “well / healthy.” ge-n-ki, three beats — the nasal in the middle is a full beat, coloured by the k that follows.

How do you pronounce "元気" in Japanese?

ge-n-ki, three beats — the nasal in the middle is a full beat, coloured by the k that follows.

元気 /ɡen.ki/

genki

One of the three units has no vowel in it at all. The ん here is a good demonstration of assimilation: it takes its place of articulation from the k after it, so it sounds nothing like the ん at the end of さん. Its duration, though, is exactly the same — one beat.

Listen: 元気

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Sound it out

ge A hard g into a short front e that doesn't glide toward "gay." Some Tokyo speakers nasalise the g word-initially in casual speech.

n A whole beat of nasal. Because a k follows, the back of the tongue rises to the soft palate, so this ん is produced like the ng of "sing" — hum it and hold it.

ki A palatally-coloured k into a short tense i. The release out of the held nasal should be clean, with no vowel sneaking in between.

Hear it in a sentence

おかげさまで元気です。ありがとうございます。

Okagesama de genki desu. Arigatou gozaimasu.

I'm well, thank you.

Listen: おかげさまで元気です。ありがとうございます。

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おかげさまで元気です。ありがとうございます。 gives you ありがとうございます in the second sentence, ten morae with a long o inside it. Between the nasal beat of 元気 and the held vowel of ありがとう, the pair of sentences covers both of the main ways Japanese adds duration that English wouldn't count.

Where English speakers slip

"GEN-kee" in two syllables is the near-universal version, with the n as a syllable-closing consonant and a long stressed first vowel. Hum the nasal for a full beat — and make it the "ng" variety, since a k follows — then keep the final i short. English speakers also over-lengthen that i because "key" is a long vowel in English.