Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "習う" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 習う in Japanese?

習う is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /na.ɾa.ɯ/. It means “to learn.” na-ra-u, three beats, with a tap in the middle and a bare unrounded vowel at the end.

na-ra-u, three beats, with a tap in the middle and a bare unrounded vowel at the end.

習う /na.ɾa.ɯ/

narau

Peak on ra, and identical timing across the three. Two identical a vowels in the first two beats mean any English-style reduction shows up instantly, and the final bare u is the beat most likely to get swallowed entirely.

Listen: 習う

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

Sound it out

na An n against the ridge behind the upper teeth, then a short bright a.

ra A single strike of the tongue tip in almost the same place the n was made — so the tongue barely travels. The a afterwards must match the first one exactly.

u An unrounded u with no consonant to lean on, arriving directly off the a. No glide connects them; the lips stay flat throughout.

Hear it in a sentence

日本語を習っています。

Nihongo o naratte imasu.

I'm learning Japanese.

Listen: 日本語を習っています。

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

日本語を習っています uses 習って, the geminate form: na-ra-t-te, four morae with a silent held beat. That silent mora replaces the bare u of the dictionary form, so the same verb shows you two different ways Japanese fills a rhythmic slot — once with a vowel, once with nothing at all.

Where English speakers slip

"na-ROW" is the usual collapse: the middle and final morae fused into an English diphthong with a curled r, and the whole word reduced to two beats. Tap once rather than curling, keep the two a's identical, and give the closing u enough time and enough flat-lipped clarity to register as its own beat.