Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "何" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 何 in Japanese?

何 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /na.ɲi/. It means “what.” na-ni, two short beats, with the second n palatalised and the vowel clipped.

na-ni, two short beats, with the second n palatalised and the vowel clipped.

何 /na.ɲi/

nani

Two morae with the accent on the first, so na starts high and ni drops. What's worth noticing is that the two n's in this word are not the same sound — the second is palatalised by the following i. Japanese consonants change shape depending on the vowel attached to them, and this two-beat word shows it clearly.

Listen: 何

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Sound it out

na Tongue tip on the teeth-ridge, then a short bright a. Brief and unstressed despite carrying the pitch peak.

ni A different n from the one before it: the tongue blade spreads flat against the hard palate, giving a ñ-like quality, and the i is short and tense rather than the long relaxed "ee" of English "knee."

Hear it in a sentence

今晩は何をしますか。

Konban wa nani o shimasu ka?

What are you doing tonight?

Listen: 今晩は何をしますか。

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今晩は何をしますか keeps the nani reading because を follows, but the same kanji becomes nan before です (as in 何ですか). Elsewhere in the sentence, 今晩 is three morae (ko-n-ba-n — four, in fact) with two nasal beats, and the ん before ba assimilates to an m-like sound because of the following lip closure.

Where English speakers slip

"NAH-nee" is what English speakers produce: a stressed first syllable and a long relaxed final vowel, essentially the English word "nanny." Both vowels should be short and neither beat should be louder. The palatalisation on the second n also gets lost — flatten the tongue against the palate rather than tapping with the tip, and the word takes on its proper Japanese colour.