Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "下手" in Japanese?

he-ta, two short beats — a soft h and a flat "eh," nothing like English "hey."

下手 /he.ta/

heta

Matched beats, high then low. Both vowels are short and pure, and neither consonant carries the force its English counterpart would — which makes this a word where doing less is doing it correctly.

Listen: 下手

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Sound it out

he A gentle breath of h into a short front e held in one position. The English tendency is to glide upward into "hay"; Japanese e does not move.

ta Dental t, released without aspiration, into a bright short a.

Hear it in a sentence

私は歌が下手です。

Watashi wa uta ga heta desu.

I'm bad at singing.

Listen: 私は歌が下手です。

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私は歌が下手です contains 歌 (u-ta), two morae opening on an unrounded u. Notice that 歌 and 下手 both end in the same ta mora, one beat each, and neither is lengthened. The whole sentence is short beats and a final devoiced です.

Where English speakers slip

It comes out as "HAY-ta," with a diphthongised first vowel and English stress on it. Freeze the tongue during the e so it can't travel, soften the h to a shaped breath, and keep both beats equal. Learners sometimes also aspirate the t, which adds a percussive quality Japanese consonants don't have.