Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "ください" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce ください in Japanese?

ください is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kɯ.da.sa.i/. It means “please (give me).” ku-da-sa-i, four even beats — the last two are separate vowels, not the diphthong of English "sigh."

ku-da-sa-i, four even beats — the last two are separate vowels, not the diphthong of English "sigh."

ください /kɯ.da.sa.i/

kudasai

Four morae with the accent falling in the middle, so the word rises and then drops on the final i. Whatever the melody, the four beats stay identical in length. Given how often this word appears at the end of requests, an uneven ください is one of the most frequently repeated rhythm errors a beginner makes.

Listen: ください

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Sound it out

ku A soft unaspirated k into the unrounded u. Because a voiced d follows, this u stays voiced, unlike the devoiced ku at the end of words like roku.

da Dental d, then a short bright a. Cleanly released with no aspiration.

sa A crisp s into another a of exactly the same quality and length as the one before it.

i Its own beat. It follows the sa without any consonant between, and the two must not fuse — a-i is two morae here, always.

Hear it in a sentence

水をください。

Mizu o kudasai.

Water, please.

Listen: 水をください。

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水をください is about as short as a Japanese sentence gets — mi-zu-o-ku-da-sa-i, seven morae with no pauses anywhere, including none before the particle を. Said correctly it's one continuous seven-beat run. Learners tend to break it into three English-style words with gaps, which is the surest way to sound non-native.

Where English speakers slip

"koo-da-SIGH" captures every common error at once: a rounded u, an English stress peak, and the final two morae crushed into a diphthong. Flatten the lips on the u, spread the emphasis evenly, and split sa and i into separate pulses. That last point matters beyond this word — the same -ai ending shows up across the language.