Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "見る" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 見る in Japanese?

見る is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /mi.ɾɯ/. It means “to see / watch.” mi-ru, two short beats — the r is one contact and the u has no lip rounding.

mi-ru, two short beats — the r is one contact and the u has no lip rounding.

見る /mi.ɾɯ/

miru

Count it: mi-ru, both the same size, high then low. Because this verb is so short, English speakers tend to compensate by stretching it into something more substantial; resist that. Two clipped beats is the whole word, and its conjugated forms will inherit that tempo.

Listen: 見る

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

mi Lips closed, then a short tense i. Roughly half the duration of English "me," and with a tighter, more forward vowel.

ru A single flick of the tongue tip against the ridge — quick enough that English listeners often mishear it as a d. Then the flat-lipped u that ends most Japanese verbs in their dictionary form.

Hear it in a sentence

明日映画を見ます。

Ashita eiga o mimasu.

I'll watch a movie tomorrow.

Listen: 明日映画を見ます。

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

明日映画を見ます places 映画 just before the verb, and that word is a length trap: e-i-ga is often pronounced with the first two morae fused into a long "ee," so it comes out as "eega" — but still two beats' worth of vowel. Then 見ます arrives with nothing long in it at all.

Where English speakers slip

"MEE-roo" is the standard mistake — a long first vowel and a rounded, rhotic second. Both need shortening and flattening. Watch also for adding a slight y-glide before the i, which English does automatically after m in some accents. The Japanese mora is just m plus a short, steady vowel, over almost as soon as it begins.