Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "島" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 島 in Japanese?

島 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɕi.ma/. It means “island.” shi-ma, two short beats — a thin palatal hiss and a bright open a.

shi-ma, two short beats — a thin palatal hiss and a bright open a.

島 /ɕi.ma/

shima

Two matched counts, with a crest on the first. Both vowels are short and there is nothing held, which makes the word quicker than English speakers expect — and easy to confuse with 縞 or 姉妹 if the vowels get sloppy.

Listen: 島

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Sound it out

shi A hiss made with the tongue blade near the hard palate, lighter than English sh, with a short tense i. Because an m follows, it stays fully voiced.

ma A brief lip closure, giving a bright short a with the jaw genuinely down.

Hear it in a sentence

この島は小さいですがきれいです。

Kono shima wa chiisai desu ga kirei desu.

This island is small but beautiful.

Listen: この島は小さいですがきれいです。

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

この島は小さいですがきれいです contains 小さい, four morae with a long i at the front, and きれい, whose "ei" merges into a long e. So the sentence has two held vowels bracketing 島's two short ones.

Where English speakers slip

"SHEE-ma" doubles the opening vowel and stresses it. Halve the i and keep both beats equal. Learners also push too much air through the sh — Japanese uses less, and places the sound further forward, which gives it a lighter, thinner quality.