Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "パン" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce パン in Japanese?

パン is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /paɴ/. It means “bread.” pa-n, two beats — the nasal is a beat of its own, so it's longer than English "pan."

pa-n, two beats — the nasal is a beat of its own, so it's longer than English "pan."

パン /paɴ/

pan

Two slots for a word English reads as one syllable. The borrowing came from Portuguese rather than English, but the timing point is the same: Japanese gives the nasal its own count, so パン is noticeably longer than any English word spelled the same way.

Listen: パン

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Sound it out

pa A p released without the strong puff of air English gives "pan" — hold a hand to your mouth and you should feel very little — into a bright short a.

n The moraic nasal, filling a whole beat. Word-finally it's made far back with the mouth open, so it hums rather than snapping shut.

Hear it in a sentence

パン屋でパンを買いました。

Pan'ya de pan o kaimashita.

I bought bread at the bakery.

Listen: パン屋でパンを買いました。

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パン屋でパンを買いました uses the word twice, once inside the compound パン屋 (pa-n-ya) where the ん sits before a y-glide — an awkward junction that native speakers keep as a distinct beat rather than merging into "nya." Hearing it in both positions is instructive.

Where English speakers slip

The English word "pan" is one beat with an aspirated p and a lax vowel; the Japanese word is two beats with a soft p and a bright tense one. Soften the release, brighten the vowel, and hum the nasal for its own count. Learners also import the English vowel of "pan," which is much further back than Japanese あ.