How to Pronounce '準備': Japanese Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce 準備 in Japanese?

準備 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /dʑɯm.bi/. It means “preparation / ready.” ju-n-bi, three beats — and the middle nasal turns into an m because a b follows.

How do you pronounce "準備" in Japanese?

ju-n-bi, three beats — and the middle nasal turns into an m because a b follows.

準備 /dʑɯm.bi/

junbi

Three morae, one of which is a vowel-less hum. The assimilation to m is worth dwelling on: Japanese's moraic nasal is a chameleon that takes its shape from whatever follows, and this word gives you the lip-closure version. Its length, though, is fixed at exactly one beat.

Listen: 準備

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

ju A soft voiced affricate made with the tongue blade against the palate — lighter than English j — into an unrounded u. Keep the lips flat, not pursed.

n One whole beat of nasal, and it assimilates to the following b: the lips close, so what you actually produce is an m held for a beat. Written n, pronounced m — the spelling follows the kana, not the sound.

bi The lips release from the nasal directly into the b, then a short tense i. The transition should be seamless, with no re-opening of the mouth in between.

Hear it in a sentence

出かける準備ができましたか。

Dekakeru junbi ga dekimashita ka?

Are you ready to go out?

Listen: 出かける準備ができましたか。

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

出かける準備ができましたか opens with 出かける, four flat beats, then 準備 with its nasal, then ができました. The ki in できました sits between voiceless consonants and can devoice. Across the sentence you get a held nasal and a whispered vowel — the two things that make Japanese timing invisible to English ears.

Where English speakers slip

"JOON-bee" is the standard English attempt: a rounded u, a hard English j, a nasal reduced to a syllable-closing consonant, and a stretched final vowel. Unround the u, soften the j to a blade articulation, and hold the nasal — as an m — for its own full count before releasing into the bi.