Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "世界" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 世界 in Japanese?

世界 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /se.ka.i/. It means “world.” se-ka-i, three beats — the ka and i are separate morae, not the English word "sky" backwards.

se-ka-i, three beats — the ka and i are separate morae, not the English word "sky" backwards.

世界 /se.ka.i/

sekai

Crest on the first, and three units of the same length. The word shares the -ai ending of dozens of others, and in every case that i is a separate beat rather than the second half of a diphthong — get it right here and a whole family follows.

Listen: 世界

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Sound it out

se Crisp s into a short front e that holds one position. No glide toward "say."

ka Unaspirated k, then a bright short a — no puff at all.

i A short tense i taking the third beat on its own, arriving straight off the a with nothing between them.

Hear it in a sentence

世界にはたくさんの国があります。

Sekai ni wa takusan no kuni ga arimasu.

There are many countries in the world.

Listen: 世界にはたくさんの国があります。

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世界にはたくさんの国があります includes たくさん (four morae with a whispered ku and a closing nasal) and 国 (ku-ni). So after 世界's three plain beats, the sentence hands you a whispered vowel, a nasal beat and then a palatalised n — a good sequence of contrasting textures.

Where English speakers slip

"se-KIGH" fuses the last two morae into an English diphthong and stresses them. Pull them apart with a separate pulse on the i. The opening e also tends to drift toward "say" — anchor your tongue for its whole duration, and keep all three beats the same length.