Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "風" in Japanese?

ka-ze, two short beats — a soft k, a buzzing z, and a flat "zeh."

風 /ka.ze/

kaze

Two beats of equal length, and standard speech leaves the word unaccented so the pitch rises and stays up. Nothing here is lengthened or emphasised, which makes it quicker than English intuition suggests for two syllables.

Listen: 風

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Sound it out

ka Unaspirated k, then a bright short a. Hold a palm to your mouth and you should feel almost nothing.

ze Word-medially this is a plain buzzing z rather than the "dz" of initial position, followed by a short front e anchored in one place.

Hear it in a sentence

今日は風が強いです。

Kyou wa kaze ga tsuyoi desu.

The wind is strong today.

Listen: 今日は風が強いです。

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今日は風が強いです closes with 強い (tsu-yo-i), three morae opening on a word-initial affricate and ending with two vowels that must not fuse. So the sentence pairs a very simple two-beat noun with a considerably harder three-beat adjective.

Where English speakers slip

"KAH-zay" stretches and stresses the first beat and diphthongises the second. Both vowels are short, and the e must not travel upward. Learners also aspirate the k — soften the release until no air escapes, which changes the word's whole texture.