Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "言葉" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 言葉 in Japanese?

言葉 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ko.to.ba/. It means “word.” ko-to-ba, three even beats — two matching o's and a bright final a.

ko-to-ba, three even beats — two matching o's and a bright final a.

言葉 /ko.to.ba/

kotoba

Three beats of matching size, with a crest early in the word. The two o's should be indistinguishable from one another, which is where English's habit of weakening the second of two similar syllables tends to show.

Listen: 言葉

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Sound it out

ko Quiet k, then a stationary short o with no glide.

to The t is dental and softly released, giving an o identical to the first.

ba A clean b — one of the few consonants that transfers directly from English — into a bright short a.

Hear it in a sentence

この言葉の意味を教えてください。

Kono kotoba no imi o oshiete kudasai.

Please tell me the meaning of this word.

Listen: この言葉の意味を教えてください。

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この言葉の意味を教えてください contains 意味 (i-mi), two short beats, and 教えて, where shi and e are separate morae. So the sentence asks you to keep a vowel pair apart in the verb while keeping two identical o's matched in the noun.

Where English speakers slip

"ko-TOE-ba" stresses the middle and diphthongises its vowel. Freeze both o's, level the beats, and keep the final a short and bright rather than letting it ring out. The b is the one sound here you can more or less import from English unchanged.