Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "警察官" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 警察官 in Japanese?

警察官 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /keː.sa.tsɯ̥.kaɴ/. It means “police officer.” ke-e-sa-tsu-ka-n, six beats — a long e, a real affricate, and a closing hum.

ke-e-sa-tsu-ka-n, six beats — a long e, a real affricate, and a closing hum.

警察官 /keː.sa.tsɯ̥.kaɴ/

keisatsukan

Six beats — one of the longest words in the course. Two of them belong to the opening long vowel, one is whispered, and one is a hum, so only half the word carries a clearly audible vowel. Keeping the tempo flat across all six is the challenge.

Listen: 警察官

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Sound it out

kei A quiet k opening onto an e held for two full counts. The i in the romaji marks length only — there is no separate i sound.

sa A short clean s into a bright open a.

tsu One indivisible affricate, with a u caught between voiceless sounds that routinely devoices — so this beat is largely a sustained "ts."

ka A k with no puff, then an a matching the earlier one.

n One whole count of humming to close, made far back with the mouth open.

Hear it in a sentence

警察官に道を聞きました。

Keisatsukan ni michi o kikimashita.

I asked a police officer for directions.

Listen: 警察官に道を聞きました。

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警察官に道を聞きました contains 道 (mi-chi) with its light affricate and 聞きました with a devoicing-prone opening vowel. So the sentence has two affricates and two whispered vowels, plus the long e and nasal in the noun itself.

Where English speakers slip

"kay-SAT-soo-kan" gets four things wrong: an English diphthong for the long e, a split affricate, a rounded u, and a nasal reduced to a closing consonant. Work through them one at a time — the long e first, since it opens the word and sets its whole length.