Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "終わる" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 終わる in Japanese?

終わる is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /o.wa.ɾɯ/. It means “to finish / end.” o-wa-ru, three even beats — the w compresses the lips rather than pushing them forward.

o-wa-ru, three even beats — the w compresses the lips rather than pushing them forward.

終わる /o.wa.ɾɯ/

owaru

Pitch falls away after the first mora; length stays constant across all three. Because the first two morae are both back-rounded-ish sounds, they can blur into a single stretched "ow" if you're not careful. Articulating the w clearly is what keeps them as two beats.

Listen: 終わる

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Sound it out

o A short stationary mid-back vowel opening the word. No glide, no glottal onset.

wa Japanese w is made by squeezing the lips sideways rather than protruding them the way English does. Coming straight off an o, the transition should be smooth but the two beats must stay distinct.

ru One tap of the tongue tip and an unrounded u. Keep it brief — the tap is the shortest consonant in the language.

Hear it in a sentence

宿題が終わりました。

Shukudai ga owarimashita.

I finished my homework.

Listen: 宿題が終わりました。

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宿題が終わりました opens with 宿題 (shu-ku-da-i), where the ku between voiceless consonants routinely drops out of voice, so the word can sound like "shk'dai." Then 終わりました gives six fully voiced morae. The sentence swings from maximum devoicing to none at all in six words' worth of sound.

Where English speakers slip

The English version of this comes out as "oh-WAH-roo": a diphthong on the first vowel, English stress and length on the second, and a rounded rhotic ending. Freeze the o, compress rather than protrude the lips for the w, level the emphasis, tap once, and spread the lips for the final u. The word should sound light and quick, not rolling.