Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "鶏" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 鶏 in Japanese?

鶏 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɲi.wa.to.ɾi/. It means “chicken / hen.” ni-wa-to-ri, four even beats — a palatalised n, a compressed w, and a single tap.

ni-wa-to-ri, four even beats — a palatalised n, a compressed w, and a single tap.

鶏 /ɲi.wa.to.ɾi/

niwatori

Four beats at one tempo, unaccented in standard speech so the melody rises after ni and stays flat. The word contains three consonants English speakers routinely substitute — a palatal n, a compressed w and a tap — so keeping the rhythm even while getting all three right is the challenge.

Listen: 鶏

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Sound it out

ni The tongue blade lies flat against the hard palate rather than the tip tapping the ridge, giving a ñ quality, with a short tense i.

wa Japanese w squeezes the lips sideways instead of pushing them forward, opening onto a bright short a.

to A quiet dental t, then a stationary short o.

ri A single flick of the tongue tip on the ridge, then a short tense i matching the word's opening vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

鶏が卵を産みます。

Niwatori ga tamago o umimasu.

The hen lays eggs.

Listen: 鶏が卵を産みます。

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鶏が卵を産みます contains 卵 (ta-ma-go), three even beats, and 産みます. Nothing in the sentence is long or geminated, so its entire duration comes from counting about eleven morae honestly at a steady pace.

Where English speakers slip

"nee-wa-TOR-ee" stretches the first vowel, stresses the third beat, and substitutes an English r. Halve the opening i, level all four beats, and tap once. The w also tends to be over-rounded — Japanese compresses the lips rather than protruding them.