Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "初め" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 初め in Japanese?

初め is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ha.dʑi.me/. It means “beginning / at first.” ha-ji-me, three even beats — a soft h, a light palatal j, and a flat final "meh."

ha-ji-me, three even beats — a soft h, a light palatal j, and a flat final "meh."

初め /ha.dʑi.me/

hajime

Three beats, evenly cut, with a crest in the middle. All three vowels are different, which makes the word a decent test of vowel purity — each should be full and unreduced, with no schwa creeping into the unstressed positions English would create.

Listen: 初め

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Sound it out

ha A shaped breath of h, gentler than English, into a bright short a.

ji A voiced affricate made with the tongue blade broadly against the palate — softer and further forward than English j — with a short tense i.

me Lips meet and part, giving a short front e anchored in one position. No drift toward "may."

Hear it in a sentence

初めは難しかったです。

Hajime wa muzukashikatta desu.

At the beginning it was difficult.

Listen: 初めは難しかったです。

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初めは難しかったです ends with 難しかった, which contains a geminate: mu-zu-ka-shi-ka-t-ta, with a beat of held silence near the end. That silent beat inside a past-tense adjective ending is one learners routinely skip.

Where English speakers slip

"ha-JEE-may" stretches and stresses the middle and diphthongises the final vowel. Halve the i, anchor the e, and level the three beats. The j also arrives too hard from an English mouth — use the tongue blade rather than the tip, which produces a lighter, more "zh"-like sound.