Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "いいえ" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce いいえ in Japanese?

いいえ is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /iː.e/. It means “no.” A long "eee" held for two beats, then a short "e" — three morae in what looks like a two-syllable word.

A long "eee" held for two beats, then a short "e" — three morae in what looks like a two-syllable word.

いいえ /iː.e/

iie

Three morae from two written vowel qualities — that ratio is the whole word. Standard pronunciation puts the fall after the first mora, so the long i starts high and drops as it goes, but the length is non-negotiable regardless of pitch: shorten it and you're saying something that isn't quite this word.

Listen: いいえ

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Sound it out

ii Not two separate i sounds and not one short one: a single continuous i sustained for exactly double the normal length. Two beats, one uninterrupted vowel.

e A short, pure e as in "bed," arriving straight off the long i with no glide, no y-sound, and no glottal break between them.

Hear it in a sentence

いいえ、違います。

Iie, chigaimasu.

No, that's not right.

Listen: いいえ、違います。

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いいえ、違います pairs the refusal with 違います, and the join is the interesting part: いいえ ends on a short e and 違います begins with a chi affricate, so there's a clean stop-and-start. Note that 違います is five morae itself (chi-ga-i-ma-su) with ga and i separate — another place not to build an English "guy" diphthong.

Where English speakers slip

Learners hear "ee-eh" and produce two short beats, which makes the word sound clipped and slightly rude. The other failure is inserting a y-glide — "ee-yeh" — because English hates letting two vowels touch without something between them. Hold the i for a genuine two counts, then release directly into e with nothing in between.