Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "速い" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 速い in Japanese?

速い is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ha.ja.i/. It means “fast.” ha-ya-i, three beats — the ya and i are separate morae, so it doesn't end like English "eye."

ha-ya-i, three beats — the ya and i are separate morae, so it doesn't end like English "eye."

速い /ha.ja.i/

hayai

Listen for evenness: three beats of exactly the same size, with the melody peaking on ya. This word shares its romaji with 早い ("early"); standard Tokyo speech separates them by pitch, but the rhythm is identical, so a beginner should get the three-beat shape solid before worrying about melody.

Listen: 速い

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Sound it out

ha A soft exhalation shaped into an h, then a bright short a. Much gentler than the h that starts English "harp."

ya The y-glide and the a form a single mora, one continuous gesture rather than "ee-ya." The vowel matches the first one exactly.

i The closing beat is a lone i, following the a with no glide between them. It carries no extra emphasis despite ending the word.

Hear it in a sentence

この車はとても速いです。

Kono kuruma wa totemo hayai desu.

This car is very fast.

Listen: この車はとても速いです。

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この車はとても速いです puts 車 (ku-ru-ma) two words ahead — three beats with a tap in the middle and a first u that keeps its voicing before the r. Then とても adds three more short beats. By the time 速い arrives, the sentence has been running at a steady clip for eight morae, and the adjective has to match it.

Where English speakers slip

The reflex is "ha-YAI," fusing the last two morae into the vowel of English "eye" and stressing them. That leaves two beats where Japanese wants three. Pulse the ya and the i separately, and keep the initial h soft — English speakers push too much air through it, which makes the word sound emphatic rather than neutral.