LingoDrop
Japanese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "置く" in Japanese?
o-ku, two beats — a pure short o, then a k whose vowel usually whispers away.
oku
Both beats are short and the same size, with o high and ku low. Compare it to 行く (iku): same second mora, same devoicing, same two-beat structure, different opening vowel. Drilling them together builds a feel for how compact Japanese verb roots actually are.
Listen: 置く
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
本をテーブルに置いてください。
Hon o teeburu ni oite kudasai.
Please put the book on the table.
Listen: 本をテーブルに置いてください。
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
本をテーブルに置いてください includes テーブル, four morae (te-e-bu-ru) with a long first vowel — English "table" is two syllables, the Japanese loan is four beats. Then 置いて is three (o-i-te) with two vowels in a row that must stay apart. Two loan-versus-native contrasts in one request.
Where English speakers slip
"OH-koo" is what English delivers: a diphthongised first vowel, a rounded second, and stress on the opening. Freeze the o so it doesn't glide, unround the u, and let it go voiceless at the end. The word should feel almost too small to be a verb — that compactness is the point.