Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "から" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce から in Japanese?

から is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ka.ɾa/. It means “from / since.” ka-ra, two even beats, with an unaspirated k and a single tongue-tap for the r.

ka-ra, two even beats, with an unaspirated k and a single tongue-tap for the r.

から /ka.ɾa/

kara

Two morae with the same vowel twice, so any difference you hear between them comes from English habits rather than Japanese. Standard speech is unaccented here, meaning the pitch rises after the first mora and holds. Both beats identical, both vowels identical, no peak.

Listen: から

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Sound it out

ka A soft k with no puff of air, then a bright short a. English "car" gives this consonant a strong release; Japanese doesn't.

ra One quick strike of the tongue tip on the ridge behind the upper teeth, then the same a again. There's no lip rounding, no tongue curling, and no sustained contact — the tongue is in and out in a single motion.

Hear it in a sentence

東京から来ました。

Toukyou kara kimashita.

I come from Tokyo.

Listen: 東京から来ました。

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東京から来ました begins with 東京, which is four morae despite looking like two syllables: to-o-kyo-o, with a long o in each half. Then から adds two more. Getting that first word to a full four counts before you even reach the particle is the sentence's real lesson — English "Tokyo" is three syllables and much shorter.

Where English speakers slip

The tap is the giveaway. English speakers produce "KAH-rah" with a curled English r, which changes the vowel colour around it and makes the word unrecognisable. Tap once, as in the middle of American "pot o' gold," and keep both a's identical. Learners also stress the first beat, importing the English trochee onto a word that has no stress at all.