Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "一人" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 一人 in Japanese?

一人 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /çi.to.ɾi/. It means “alone / one person.” hi-to-ri, three beats — a palatal h at the start and a single tap at the end.

hi-to-ri, three beats — a palatal h at the start and a single tap at the end.

一人 /çi.to.ɾi/

hitori

The crest lands on the first unit, and the three are cut evenly. The word is one of a set of irregular counter-readings — 一 is read hito- here rather than ichi- — and its rhythm is completely unlike the two-beat 一 you learned earlier, which is worth noticing rather than assuming.

Listen: 一人

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Sound it out

hi Before an i, Japanese h moves its friction to the hard palate, giving a hissier sound like the start of English "hue." The vowel is short, and often devoiced.

to Tongue on the teeth for the t, then a stationary short o.

ri The tongue tip flicks the ridge once, then a short tense i. Quick enough that some English listeners hear a d in place of the r.

Hear it in a sentence

一人で来ました。

Hitori de kimashita.

I came alone.

Listen: 一人で来ました。

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一人で来ました attaches で directly, giving hi-to-ri-de as four continuous morae before the verb. 来ました afterwards has a ki that can devoice. So the sentence starts with a possibly-whispered mora and ends with another, with clearly voiced beats in between.

Where English speakers slip

"hee-TOE-ree" gets three things wrong: a plain rather than palatal h, English stress on the middle, and an English r. Raise the h's friction to the palate, level the beats, and tap once for the ri. The palatal h is the subtlest of these and the most persistent marker of a learner's accent.