Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "いつ" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce いつ in Japanese?

いつ is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /i.tsɯ̥/. It means “when.” i-tsu, two beats — one affricate, and a final u that usually whispers away.

i-tsu, two beats — one affricate, and a final u that usually whispers away.

いつ /i.tsɯ̥/

itsu

Two short units, with the pitch high on the first. Even when the final vowel is whispered to nothing, the beat is still measured out — a native いつ sounds like a vowel followed by a puff of "ts," not like a single clipped syllable.

Listen: いつ

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Sound it out

i The word starts on a tight i, briefer than English "ee" by roughly half.

tsu A single affricate: the tongue seals for t and releases directly into s, all in one gesture. The unrounded u after it commonly devoices at the end of a word.

Hear it in a sentence

いつ帰ってきますか。

Itsu kaette kimasu ka?

When are you coming back?

Listen: いつ帰ってきますか。

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いつ帰ってきますか contains 帰って with its geminate: ka-e-t-te, four morae including a beat of held silence. So the sentence pairs an affricate at the start with a doubled consonant later — two different jobs for the same tongue position, and both take a full beat.

Where English speakers slip

"EET-soo" splits the affricate and rounds the final vowel, and it stretches the opening i as well. Fuse the t and s into one release, spread the lips, and let the vowel devoice. Learners also tend to raise the pitch dramatically because it's a question word — the melody here falls, not rises.