Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "方法" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 方法 in Japanese?

方法 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /hoː.hoː/. It means “way / method.” ho-o-ho-o, four beats — the same syllable twice, and both halves carry a long vowel.

ho-o-ho-o, four beats — the same syllable twice, and both halves carry a long vowel.

方法 /hoː.hoː/

houhou

Four beats made of one syllable repeated, each occurrence lasting two counts. It's an unusually clean demonstration of length: there are no other variables in the word, so any unevenness is purely a duration error.

Listen: 方法

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Sound it out

hou A soft breath of h into an o sustained for two full counts. The u in the romaji marks length and is never voiced as a vowel.

hou An exact repeat: the same gentle h and the same doubled o. Four beats total, and the two halves should be indistinguishable in length.

Hear it in a sentence

他に方法はありません。

Hoka ni houhou wa arimasen.

There's no other way.

Listen: 他に方法はありません。

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他に方法はありません pairs it with 他 (ho-ka), which begins with the same gentle h but has no length at all. Setting a two-beat word and a four-beat word side by side, both starting with ほ, makes the long vowels impossible to miss.

Where English speakers slip

"HO-ho" in two beats halves the word, and English speakers then usually stress the first half for good measure. Hold each o for two counts and keep the two halves matched. The h also needs softening — English pushes enough air to make the repetition sound like laughter.