Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "必要" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 必要 in Japanese?

必要 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /çi.tsɯ.joː/. It means “necessary / need.” hi-tsu-yo-o, four beats — a palatal h, a true tsu affricate, and a long o at the end.

hi-tsu-yo-o, four beats — a palatal h, a true tsu affricate, and a long o at the end.

必要 /çi.tsɯ.joː/

hitsuyou

Four morae, of which two are consumed by the final long vowel. English reads three syllables here and delivers three quick beats; Japanese wants four, with the last one being pure continuation. The word's back half should audibly outlast its front half.

Listen: 必要

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Sound it out

hi The h before i is palatal: the friction happens against the hard palate, like the breathy start of English "hue." At the beginning of a word between voiceless sounds it commonly devoices too.

tsu One indivisible sound. Seal the tongue for t, then release straight into the s hiss without any vowel in between. Splitting it into two costs the word a beat.

you The y-glide merges with the o and the whole thing is held for two morae. This is one syllable stretched long, not "yo" plus "oo."

Hear it in a sentence

パスポートが必要です。

Pasupooto ga hitsuyou desu.

You need a passport.

Listen: パスポートが必要です。

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パスポートが必要です begins with パスポート, six morae (pa-su-po-o-to) where the su devoices and the o is long — a borrowed word that in Japanese lasts noticeably longer than English "passport." Then 必要 adds four more. Between the two, the sentence has three long or whispered morae before you even reach the copula.

Where English speakers slip

"hit-SOO-yo" collects three errors: a split affricate, a rounded u, and a short final o. Make the tsu one gesture, flatten the lips, and then hold the closing o for a genuine two counts. The initial hi also tends to come out as English "hee" — raise the friction to the palate and shorten the vowel.