LingoDrop
Japanese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "もし" in Japanese?
mo-shi, two short beats, and the shi often whispers away to almost nothing before the next word.
moshi
Two morae, both short. Because this word introduces a conditional clause, it sits at the head of a phrase and is often followed by a slight breath — but that breath comes after the word, not inside it. The two beats stay tight together and neither is emphasised.
Listen: もし
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
もし雨が降ったら、家にいます。
Moshi ame ga futtara, ie ni imasu.
If it rains, I'll stay home.
Listen: もし雨が降ったら、家にいます。
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もし雨が降ったら、家にいます contains 降ったら, a geminate: a full silent beat with the tongue in position before the t releases. Compare that held silence with the whispered i of もし at the start of the sentence — both are morae you can barely hear, but for opposite reasons, and both take their full share of time.
Where English speakers slip
Untrained, the mouth produces "MOE-shee," stretching both vowels and stressing the first. The target is much quicker: a short o, a soft hiss, and an i so brief it may not voice at all. Learners also tend to pause dramatically after もし as if setting up an English "if" clause — the Japanese word doesn't need that kind of build-up.