Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "悲しい" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 悲しい in Japanese?

悲しい is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ka.na.ɕiː/. It means “sad.” ka-na-shi-i, four beats — two matching short a's, then a long i held for two counts.

ka-na-shi-i, four beats — two matching short a's, then a long i held for two counts.

悲しい /ka.na.ɕiː/

kanashii

Four morae with the last two given over to a single long vowel. Compared with 嬉しい it has the same back-weighted shape but a different opening, which makes the pair useful to drill together: same rhythm, different consonants, and neither with a stressed syllable anywhere.

Listen: 悲しい

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Sound it out

ka A k released softly, then a bright short a. No aspiration and no lengthening at the start of the word.

na The n sits at the teeth-ridge, opening onto an a identical to the first. Consecutive matching vowels are where English speakers instinctively differentiate — don't.

shii A thin, high hiss made with the tongue blade near the palate, then an i sustained across two morae. The vowel should still be ringing when you'd expect an English word to have finished.

Hear it in a sentence

昨日悲しい映画を見ました。

Kinou kanashii eiga o mimashita.

I watched a sad movie yesterday.

Listen: 昨日悲しい映画を見ました。

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昨日悲しい映画を見ました contains 映画, whose "ei" is pronounced as a long e rather than as two distinct vowels — so it comes out roughly "eega," three morae. Placing that beside the long i of 悲しい gives you two different long vowels in adjacent words, and both need their full two counts.

Where English speakers slip

"ka-na-SHEE" — three beats with a stress peak at the end and a clipped vowel — is what English produces. Two problems: the emphasis, which Japanese doesn't use, and the length, which it very much does. Match the two a's, level the volume, and hold the final i long enough that it feels like an extra syllable.