Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "声" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 声 in Japanese?

声 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ko.e/. It means “voice.” ko-e, two beats — the o and e are separate morae, with no glide between them.

ko-e, two beats — the o and e are separate morae, with no glide between them.

声 /ko.e/

koe

Two beats, the second of them a bare vowel. Standard speech puts the pitch high on the first and drops it, but the timing is what English speakers get wrong — the e must be long enough to register as a separate mora rather than as the tail of a diphthong.

Listen: 声

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Sound it out

ko A k released with almost no air, then a mid-back o held in one position.

e A short front e taking its own beat, arriving directly off the o. English inserts a w-glide in this position automatically; Japanese inserts nothing.

Hear it in a sentence

彼女は声がきれいです。

Kanojo wa koe ga kirei desu.

She has a beautiful voice.

Listen: 彼女は声がきれいです。

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彼女は声がきれいです ends with きれい, whose final "ei" merges into a long e — so the sentence has two adjacent vowels that must stay apart in 声 and two that merge into one long vowel in きれい. Opposite treatments, and both are correct.

Where English speakers slip

"KOH-way" glides the first vowel and inserts a w before the second. There's nothing between them. Freeze the o, then start the e cleanly with no consonant or glide. A tiny deliberate break helps at first, and can be smoothed away once the two-beat count is secure.