Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "心配" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 心配 in Japanese?

心配 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɕim.pa.i/. It means “worry / worried.” shi-n-pa-i, four beats — the ん becomes an m before the p, and the final i stands alone.

shi-n-pa-i, four beats — the ん becomes an m before the p, and the final i stands alone.

心配 /ɕim.pa.i/

shinpai

Four beats, one a hum and one a bare vowel. The assimilation to m is worth dwelling on: Japanese's moraic nasal takes its shape from whatever follows, so this one closes the lips completely — but it still lasts exactly one count.

Listen: 心配

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

Sound it out

shi A soft high-front hiss with a short tense i. Because a nasal follows, this vowel keeps its voicing.

n One beat of pure nasal, and because a p follows, the lips close — so what you actually produce is a held m. Written n, pronounced m.

pa The release, with a p that carries far less air than its English counterpart, into a bright short a.

i A tight little i as its own final beat, straight off the a with nothing between.

Hear it in a sentence

明日の試験が心配です。

Ashita no shiken ga shinpai desu.

I'm worried about tomorrow's exam.

Listen: 明日の試験が心配です。

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

明日の試験が心配です contains 試験 (shi-ke-n), three morae with a nasal beat of its own, and 明日 with a devoicing-prone shi. So the sentence has two moraic nasals and a whispered vowel, plus the vowel pair at the end of 心配.

Where English speakers slip

"shin-PIE" reduces the nasal to a closing consonant and fuses the last two morae into a diphthong — two beats lost at once. Hold the nasal as an m for a full count, then pulse the a and i apart. English speakers also aspirate the p, which Japanese does not.