How to Pronounce 'きれい': Japanese Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce きれい in Japanese?

きれい is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ki.ɾeː/. It means “clean / pretty.” ki-re-e, three beats — the final "ei" is normally pronounced as a long e, so it sounds like "kiree," not "ki-ray."

How do you pronounce "きれい" in Japanese?

ki-re-e, three beats — the final "ei" is normally pronounced as a long e, so it sounds like "kiree," not "ki-ray."

きれい /ki.ɾeː/

kirei

The word's shape is length, not stress: two short beats and then a vowel held for a full extra count. That final length is what makes the word sound complete; cut it and きれい turns into something a native listener has to reconstruct.

Listen: きれい

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Sound it out

ki A light k with a palatal colouring before the i, and a short tense vowel. Half the length English gives "key."

re One flick of the tongue tip against the ridge, then a front e — which in this word runs straight into the following mora as one long vowel.

i (length) Written as an i, but in ordinary speech it simply extends the e before it. So the word ends on a held "ee" sound rather than on a separate i vowel — one of the most common spelling-versus-sound mismatches in Japanese.

Hear it in a sentence

台所はとてもきれいです。

Daidokoro wa totemo kirei desu.

The kitchen is very clean.

Listen: 台所はとてもきれいです。

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台所はとてもきれいです pairs it with 台所 (da-i-do-ko-ro), five morae with a vowel sequence at the start that must not become "die." Then とても gives three short beats. So the sentence asks you to keep two vowels apart at the beginning and to run two vowels together at the end — opposite instructions, both correct.

Where English speakers slip

Two errors compete here. Some learners say "ki-RAY" with an English diphthong; others carefully separate the e and i into two distinct vowels, which sounds stilted. Ordinary Japanese does neither: it merges them into one long e. Aim for "ki-ree" with the last vowel held for two counts, and keep the k free of aspiration.