LingoDrop
Japanese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "星" in Japanese?
ho-shi, two beats, and the final vowel usually devoices so the word ends on a hiss.
hoshi
Two beats, matched in length, with the pitch high on the first and dropping. The second beat is frequently just friction, yet it still occupies its full share of time — a whispered mora is not a shortened one.
Listen: 星
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
今夜は星がたくさん見えます。
Konya wa hoshi ga takusan miemasu.
You can see a lot of stars tonight.
Listen: 今夜は星がたくさん見えます。
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
今夜は星がたくさん見えます includes たくさん (four morae with a whispered ku and a closing nasal) and 見えます, where mi and e are separate beats. So the sentence has whispered vowels, a nasal beat and a vowel pair to keep apart, all in one line.
Where English speakers slip
"HO-shee" glides the o, stresses it, and fully voices a lengthened final vowel. Freeze the o, soften the h, and let the i go voiceless. English speakers also push far more air through the sh than Japanese does, which makes the word sound emphatic.