Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "音楽" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 音楽 in Japanese?

音楽 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /oŋ.ɡa.kɯ̥/. It means “music.” o-n-ga-ku, four beats — a nasal beat early and a final u that whispers away.

o-n-ga-ku, four beats — a nasal beat early and a final u that whispers away.

音楽 /oŋ.ɡa.kɯ̥/

ongaku

Four beats, one a hum and one nearly voiceless. Only two of the four carry a clearly audible vowel, which makes this a good demonstration that Japanese timing is measured internally rather than heard — the word takes four counts regardless.

Listen: 音楽

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Sound it out

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

n A whole beat of nasal, shaped by the following g into the velar "ng" variety — the same sound as the middle of English "singer."

ga A hard g into a bright short a, released straight out of the held nasal.

ku A quiet k, then the unrounded u, which devoices at the end of the word so the noun finishes on breath.

Hear it in a sentence

毎晩音楽を聞きます。

Maiban ongaku o kikimasu.

I listen to music every evening.

Listen: 毎晩音楽を聞きます。

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

毎晩音楽を聞きます opens with 毎晩 (ma-i-ba-n), four morae with a vowel pair and a moraic nasal, and ends with 聞きます, whose first vowel devoices between two k-like sounds. So there are two nasal beats and two whispered vowels in a short sentence.

Where English speakers slip

"ON-ga-koo" reduces the nasal to a closing consonant, stresses the first beat, and rounds and voices the final vowel. Hum the ん separately, level the emphasis, spread the lips, and let the last vowel devoice — a fully-voiced "koo" at the end is the clearest giveaway.