How to Pronounce 'お願いします': Japanese Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce お願いします in Japanese?

お願いします is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /o.ne.ɡa.i.ɕi.ma.sɯ̥/. It means “please.” o-ne-ga-i-shi-ma-su, seven equal beats. The "ga-i" is two separate beats, not the diphthong of English "guy."

How do you pronounce "お願いします" in Japanese?

o-ne-ga-i-shi-ma-su, seven equal beats. The "ga-i" is two separate beats, not the diphthong of English "guy."

お願いします /o.ne.ɡa.i.ɕi.ma.sɯ̥/

onegaishimasu

Seven morae marching in step. There's no long vowel and no geminate here, which makes it a good word for practising pure evenness: seven taps, seven sounds, no acceleration through the middle. Pitch-wise the phrase rises off the low first mora and stays up until the very end, so you should not hear any dramatic peak.

Listen: お願いします

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Sound it out

o The polite prefix again, and again a full beat. Speakers who rush it end up with "negaishimasu," which sounds abrupt.

ne n against the teeth-ridge, then a short e like "net" — never the "nay" glide.

ga Hard g into an open a; some Tokyo speakers nasalise it to something like "nga" mid-word, which is fine to imitate but not required.

i Stands alone as its own mora. Keeping it separate from the ga before it is what preserves the word's rhythm.

shi A soft palatal hiss into a tight i. It sits between two other voiced sounds here, so unlike the shi of 私 it stays fully voiced.

ma Simple m plus open a. Nothing exotic — but don't let it get swallowed just because the word is long.

su Devoiced at the end, giving the familiar "-mass" ending of polite verbs.

Hear it in a sentence

コーヒーを一つお願いします。

Koohii o hitotsu onegaishimasu.

One coffee, please.

Listen: コーヒーを一つお願いします。

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コーヒーを一つお願いします is a length workout: コーヒー has two long vowels in a row (koo-hii, four morae for what English reads as two syllables), and 一つ has a small っ giving a silent beat before its t. Then お願いします arrives with none of that — seven plain beats. Contrasting the three words in one sentence is the fastest way to feel what mora timing actually means.

Where English speakers slip

The wrong version sounds like "o-ne-GUY-shi-mass" — ga and i crushed into the English diphthong of "guy," which costs the phrase a whole beat. Japanese has no diphthongs in the English sense; adjacent vowels are simply consecutive full beats. Say "ga" and then "i" with a hair of separation until the seven-count feels automatic, then let it smooth out.