Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "子供" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 子供 in Japanese?

子供 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ko.do.mo/. It means “child.” ko-do-mo, three even beats with three matching o's and no stress anywhere.

ko-do-mo, three even beats with three matching o's and no stress anywhere.

子供 /ko.do.mo/

kodomo

Three slots, evenly cut, and standard speech leaves the word unaccented, so the pitch steps up after ko and holds. Like 男, it is built on a single repeated vowel, which makes it an excellent diagnostic for English vowel reduction.

Listen: 子供

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Sound it out

ko A gentle k with no puff behind it, opening onto a stationary short o.

do A dental d — tongue on the teeth, not the ridge behind them — with an identical o.

mo The m is nothing more than a brief lip closure, and after it a third o matching the others exactly. Three identical vowels in three consecutive beats.

Hear it in a sentence

子供が三人います。

Kodomo ga san-nin imasu.

I have three children.

Listen: 子供が三人います。

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子供が三人います contains 三人 (sa-n-ni-n), four morae with two nasal beats. Note that the counter changes the reading — not san-jin but san-nin — and the ん before the ni assimilates to a held n. Six vowel-less or nasal beats in a very short sentence.

Where English speakers slip

"ko-DOE-mo" stresses the middle, glides its vowel, and weakens the last beat. Level the three, freeze every o so the lips stay still, and put the d on the teeth with a quiet release. English speakers also often aspirate the k, which makes the word's opening too percussive.