LingoDrop
Japanese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "犬" in Japanese?
i-nu, two short beats — a clipped i and an unrounded u.
inu
Two equally-cut units. In standard Tokyo speech the pitch rises across the word and falls on the following particle, so 犬が has its drop after the noun — the same pattern as 山 and 雪.
Listen: 犬
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
犬が大きな声で吠えています。
Inu ga ookina koe de hoete imasu.
The dog is barking loudly.
Listen: 犬が大きな声で吠えています。
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犬が大きな声で吠えています contains 声 (ko-e), whose two vowels must stay separate, and 大きな with a long o at the front. So the sentence pairs a vowel pair that must be kept apart with a long vowel that must be held — both easy to get wrong in opposite directions.
Where English speakers slip
"EE-noo" doubles the first vowel and rounds the second. Clip the i and spread the lips for the u. Learners familiar with the word from pet vocabulary lists often also stress the first beat, which the word doesn't want — the two are equal in length and volume.