Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "なぜ" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce なぜ in Japanese?

なぜ is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /na.ze/. It means “why.” na-ze, two short beats — a buzzing z and a flat "eh," not "zay."

na-ze, two short beats — a buzzing z and a flat "eh," not "zay."

なぜ /na.ze/

naze

Two beats of matching size, with the crest on the first. Both vowels are short and neither consonant is lengthened, which makes this a compact word; English speakers, treating it as a weighty question word, routinely stretch it to twice its proper length.

Listen: なぜ

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Sound it out

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

ze A voiced buzz — mid-word it's a plain z rather than the "dz" you'd hear word-initially — into a short front e that stays in one position.

Hear it in a sentence

なぜ悲しいのですか。

Naze kanashii no desu ka?

Why are you sad?

Listen: なぜ悲しいのですか。

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なぜ悲しいのですか is followed by 悲しい with its long final i — two beats of held vowel — and then のですか. So a very short question word sits directly in front of a word with genuine length in it, making the contrast easy to hear if you deliver both accurately.

Where English speakers slip

The reflex is "NAH-zay," with a stretched stressed first beat and an English diphthong on the second. Both vowels are short and pure. The e in particular must not travel — anchor your tongue and jaw for its whole duration. And keep the z light rather than buzzing it for emphasis.