LingoDrop
Japanese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "紙" in Japanese?
ka-mi, two short beats — and the pitch rises, which is what separates it from 神 "god."
kami
Two matched beats, and a genuine pitch minimal pair: 紙 "paper" starts low and rises, while 神 "god" starts high and falls. The morae, the consonants and the vowels are identical, so melody carries the whole distinction — one of a small set of such pairs alongside 雨/飴 and 橋/箸.
Listen: 紙
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
白い紙を一枚ください。
Shiroi kami o ichi-mai kudasai.
Please give me one blank sheet of paper.
Listen: 白い紙を一枚ください。
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白い紙を一枚ください uses the counter 一枚 (i-chi-ma-i), four morae with an affricate and a vowel pair at the end. So the sentence combines a pitch-distinguished noun with a counter that needs two adjacent vowels kept apart.
Where English speakers slip
"KAH-mee" stretches both vowels and puts English stress on the first — which is doubly unfortunate here, because a high-then-low shape is precisely the pattern of the other word. Keep both beats short and equal, and let the pitch rise rather than fall.