Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "十" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 十 in Japanese?

十 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /dʑɯː/. It means “ten.” juu — one syllable stretched across two beats, with a soft j and completely unrounded lips.

juu — one syllable stretched across two beats, with a soft j and completely unrounded lips.

十 /dʑɯː/

juu

Two morae, one syllable, with a falling pitch across the vowel. In counting sequences this length is what keeps ten from colliding rhythmically with the one-mora numbers; juu should audibly take twice as long as go.

Listen: 十

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Sound it out

ju A voiced palatal affricate, softer and further forward than the j of English "June," made with the tongue blade rather than the tip. The vowel is the unrounded u — lips flat, not pushed forward.

u (length) Hold that same u for a second full beat. There's no change in quality and no new articulation, just continuation of the sound already going.

Hear it in a sentence

十時に駅で会いましょう。

Juu-ji ni eki de aimashou.

Let’s meet at the station at ten.

Listen: 十時に駅で会いましょう。

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十時に駅で会いましょう has 十時 (ju-u-ji), where the long u runs straight into another palatal affricate. Later, 会いましょう ends in ましょう — sho-o, another long vowel — so the sentence bookends itself with two held vowels and asks you to keep both honest.

Where English speakers slip

What comes out is "joo" with rounded lips and a single beat, essentially the English word "Jew." Two things need fixing: unround the lips, which changes the vowel's timbre completely, and double the duration. A short, rounded juu is one of the most immediately foreign-sounding things a learner can produce in a counting sequence.