Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "道" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 道 in Japanese?

道 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /mi.tɕi/. It means “street / road.” mi-chi, two short beats — two high front vowels and one gentle affricate between them.

mi-chi, two short beats — two high front vowels and one gentle affricate between them.

道 /mi.tɕi/

michi

Two units, same length, crest on the first. Both vowels being i makes the word compact and bright, and also makes it easy to blur — the tongue barely moves between the beats, so the affricate is what marks the boundary.

Listen: 道

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Sound it out

mi A lip closure, then a short tense i — roughly half the duration English gives "me."

chi A light affricate formed with the tongue blade against the hard palate, with another short i. Two very similar vowels in a row means the affricate has to be crisp to keep the beats separate.

Hear it in a sentence

気をつけて道を渡ってください。

Ki o tsukete michi o watatte kudasai.

Cross the street carefully.

Listen: 気をつけて道を渡ってください。

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気をつけて道を渡ってください contains 渡って with its geminate: wa-ta-t-te, four morae including a beat of held silence. So a word made of two quick light beats is followed by one with a genuine gap in it — a good contrast in a single request.

Where English speakers slip

"MEE-chee" doubles both vowels and adds English stress. Halve them. Learners also frequently confuse this with 町 (machi) in speech when their vowels drift — Japanese i and a are far apart, so keep the i tense and high rather than letting it sag toward a lax English vowel.