How to Pronounce '難しい': Japanese Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce 難しい in Japanese?

難しい is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /mɯ.zɯ.ka.ɕiː/. It means “difficult.” mu-zu-ka-shi-i, five beats, with two unrounded u's up front and a long i at the end.

How do you pronounce "難しい" in Japanese?

mu-zu-ka-shi-i, five beats, with two unrounded u's up front and a long i at the end.

難しい /mɯ.zɯ.ka.ɕiː/

muzukashii

Five morae with the last two consumed by the long vowel. The first three are all short and none is emphasised, which means the word has a low, flat run followed by a sustained bright ending — quite different from English, which would put the weight on "zu" or "ka" and let the end trail off.

Listen: 難しい

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Sound it out

mu Lips together for the m, then immediately spread for the unrounded u. The default English instinct after a lip closure is to keep rounding — override it.

zu A buzzing voiced consonant into another flat-lipped u. Mid-word this is closer to a plain z than to the "dz" you'd use at the start of a word.

ka The k is released softly, opening onto a bright short a — the word's only open vowel and its rhythmic centre.

shii A light palatal hiss and then an i held across two morae. After three back-ish vowels, this bright long vowel is what the word ends on.

Hear it in a sentence

この漢字は難しいです。

Kono kanji wa muzukashii desu.

This kanji is difficult.

Listen: この漢字は難しいです。

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

この漢字は難しいです contains 漢字 (ka-n-ji), three morae with a nasal beat in the middle that is coloured by the following j. The sentence is a nice pairing: a word whose extra length comes from a nasal, followed by one whose extra length comes from a vowel. Both are beats English wouldn't count.

Where English speakers slip

"moo-zoo-ka-SHEE" is what English mouths produce — rounded u's, a stress peak at the end, and a truncated final vowel. Spread the lips for both u's, keep every beat level, and hold the closing i for two full counts. This word is long enough that learners often start well and then rush the ending, which is precisely the part that mustn't be rushed.