Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "ない" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce ない in Japanese?

ない is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /na.i/. It means “not / there is no (plain negative).” na-i, two separate vowel beats — not the single diphthong of English "nigh."

na-i, two separate vowel beats — not the single diphthong of English "nigh."

ない /na.i/

nai

Two morae with the accent on the first, so na is high and i falls. The critical point is that the fall doesn't shorten the second beat: even as the pitch drops, the i occupies exactly as much time as the na. English speakers, hearing a fall, instinctively also weaken and shorten — that's the habit to break.

Listen: ない

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

Sound it out

na An n formed against the ridge behind the teeth, then a short open a. Crisp and brief; this is one beat, not the drawn-out "nah" of English.

i A full mora on its own, articulated as a separate pulse. The mouth does move from the a position to the i position, but the i is held long enough to be heard as a vowel in its own right rather than as the tail of a glide.

Hear it in a sentence

今日は時間がないです。

Kyou wa jikan ga nai desu.

I don't have time today.

Listen: 今日は時間がないです。

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

今日は時間がないです ends with ないです, where the negative runs straight into the devoiced copula: na-i-de-su, four morae with the last one whispered. The sentence also opens with 今日 (kyo-o), one syllable but two morae because of the long vowel. So it starts with something you must hold and ends with something you must barely voice.

Where English speakers slip

Almost everyone produces "nye" — one syllable, the vowel of English "night." That halves the word's length and destroys the mora count that Japanese grammar leans on constantly, because this ending appears on every plain negative verb. Say na, then i, as two distinct pulses. Once the two-beat feel is automatic you can smooth the join without losing the count.