Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "切符" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 切符 in Japanese?

切符 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kip.pɯ̥/. It means “ticket.” ki-p-pu, three beats — the middle one is a beat of silence with the lips already sealed.

ki-p-pu, three beats — the middle one is a beat of silence with the lips already sealed.

切符 /kip.pɯ̥/

kippu

Three beats for what English reads as two syllables, with the extra one spent entirely on silence. Since the last vowel is also usually voiceless, more than half the word is technically inaudible while still occupying its full time.

Listen: 切符

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Sound it out

ki A k released quietly, with palatal colouring before the i, and a short tense vowel that often lightens before the closure.

p (small っ) The geminate: close the lips at the end of the i and hold them shut, blocking all airflow, for a complete beat before releasing. Measurable silence, not a louder p.

pu The release into an unrounded u, which devoices at the end of the word — so the burst out of the closure is most of what you hear.

Hear it in a sentence

電車の切符を買いました。

Densha no kippu o kaimashita.

I bought a train ticket.

Listen: 電車の切符を買いました。

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電車の切符を買いました has 電車 with its nasal beat and 買いました with a vowel pair at the front. So the sentence contains a hum, a silence and a vowel junction — three completely different beats that English would not count as syllables.

Where English speakers slip

"KIP-poo" delivers an emphatic but instantaneous p and a rounded, voiced final vowel. Hold the closure until a listener notices a gap, spread the lips, and let the last vowel devoice. A rushed 切符 sounds like a two-beat word, which is a third short.