Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "もちろん" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce もちろん in Japanese?

もちろん is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /mo.tɕi.ɾoɴ/. It means “of course.” mo-chi-ro-n, four beats — a light affricate, one tap, and a closing hum.

mo-chi-ro-n, four beats — a light affricate, one tap, and a closing hum.

もちろん /mo.tɕi.ɾoɴ/

mochiron

Four slots, evenly cut, with the crest early. Two of those beats are ones English would compress: the affricate, which English hears as one quick sound, and the final nasal, which English treats as a consonant rather than a unit of time.

Listen: もちろん

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Sound it out

mo An unforced lip closure, then a stationary mid-back o.

chi One affricate made with the tongue blade against the palate, gentler than English ch, with a short tense i.

ro A single strike of the tongue tip on the ridge, then an o matching the first exactly.

n A full beat of nasal to finish, made at the back with the mouth open — closer to "ng" than to a tongue-tip n.

Hear it in a sentence

もちろん、いいですよ。

Mochiron, ii desu yo.

Of course, that's fine!

Listen: もちろん、いいですよ。

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もちろん、いいですよ follows the word with いい, a long i held for two counts, and then ですよ. So a four-beat word with a nasal ending runs into a two-beat word made entirely of held vowel — quite different mechanisms for occupying time, in adjacent words.

Where English speakers slip

"mo-CHEE-rohn" stretches the middle vowel, stresses it, substitutes an English r, and swallows the final nasal. Four separate fixes. Prioritise the ん: hum it for a whole beat, and the word immediately gains the length that makes it recognisable. Then level the emphasis and tap once for the ro.