Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "夏" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 夏 in Japanese?

夏 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /na.tsɯ̥/. It means “summer.” na-tsu, two beats — the tsu is one sound, and its vowel usually whispers away.

na-tsu, two beats — the tsu is one sound, and its vowel usually whispers away.

夏 /na.tsɯ̥/

natsu

Two matched beats with the pitch high on the first. Even when the second beat is almost inaudible, it still takes its full share of time — a native 夏 is not a one-syllable word with a fricative tacked on.

Listen: 夏

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Sound it out

na Tongue to the ridge for the n, then a bright short a.

tsu A single affricate: seal for t and release straight into s. The unrounded u after it devoices at the end of a word, leaving little more than the "ts."

Hear it in a sentence

夏は一番好きな季節です。

Natsu wa ichiban suki na kisetsu desu.

Summer is my favorite season.

Listen: 夏は一番好きな季節です。

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夏は一番好きな季節です contains 好き, whose two vowels both devoice into something close to "ski," and 季節 (ki-se-tsu), which ends in another devoicing-prone affricate. So the sentence has three whispered vowels and two affricates in one line.

Where English speakers slip

"NAH-tsoo" stretches the first vowel, stresses it, and rounds and voices the second. Shorten the a, spread the lips, and let the final vowel devoice. Some learners also split the affricate into "t" plus "soo," which adds a beat and removes the sound that makes つ distinctive.