Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "会社" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 会社 in Japanese?

会社 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ka.i.ɕa/. It means “company / office.” ka-i-sha, three beats — the ka and i are separate morae, so it doesn't start like English "kite."

ka-i-sha, three beats — the ka and i are separate morae, so it doesn't start like English "kite."

会社 /ka.i.ɕa/

kaisha

The crest falls on the first, and the units are all the same length. The opening vowel pair is where the count goes missing: English fuses a and i automatically, delivering a two-beat word. Pulse them apart until three feels natural.

Listen: 会社

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Sound it out

ka Release the k quietly, then a bright short a.

i A short tense i taking its own beat, arriving directly off the a with nothing between them.

sha A palatal hiss combined with an a in one mora — not "shi-ya" — and lighter than the sh of English "shark."

Hear it in a sentence

毎日会社で働いています。

Mainichi kaisha de hataraite imasu.

I work at the office every day.

Listen: 毎日会社で働いています。

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毎日会社で働いています opens with 毎日 (ma-i-ni-chi), four morae with another a-i sequence at the front. So the sentence gives you the same vowel-separation problem twice in quick succession, which makes it a useful drill rather than just an example.

Where English speakers slip

"KIGH-sha" collapses the first two morae into an English diphthong with stress on it. Separate them. The sh also tends to arrive too heavily — Japanese pushes less air and places the sound further forward — and the final a should be short and bright rather than the darker English vowel.