Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "怒る" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 怒る in Japanese?

怒る is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /o.ko.ɾɯ/. It means “to get angry.” o-ko-ru, three even beats with two matching o's and a single tap.

o-ko-ru, three even beats with two matching o's and a single tap.

怒る /o.ko.ɾɯ/

okoru

Three equally-measured beats, with a crest in the middle. The two identical o's make it easy to check yourself: if the second sounds weaker or shorter than the first, English is reducing a syllable that Japanese keeps full.

Listen: 怒る

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Sound it out

o A stationary mid-back vowel opening the word, short, with no glide toward w.

ko A quiet k, then an o exactly matching the first in quality and length.

ru One flick of the tongue tip on the ridge, then the unrounded u that ends the dictionary form.

Hear it in a sentence

父はとても怒っています。

Chichi wa totemo okotte imasu.

My father is very angry.

Listen: 父はとても怒っています。

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父はとても怒っています uses 怒って with a geminate: o-ko-t-te, four morae including a beat of held silence. So the same verb shows a tapped r in one form and a silent held beat in another — a nice illustration of how Japanese redistributes time.

Where English speakers slip

"o-KOH-roo" stresses and glides the middle vowel, substitutes an English r, and rounds the final u. Freeze both o's, tap once, and spread the lips. The word also has a near-twin in 起こる ("to occur"), so sloppy vowels can genuinely obscure which you mean.