Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "それ" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce それ in Japanese?

それ is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /so.ɾe/. It means “that (one).” so-re, two short beats, ending in a flat "reh" — not "ray," and not an English r.

so-re, two short beats, ending in a flat "reh" — not "ray," and not an English r.

それ /so.ɾe/

sore

Give so and re the same slice of time. Standard Tokyo speech leaves this unaccented, so the pitch rises from so to re and stays level — which means a following particle sits high rather than falling. Neither beat should sound like the word's centre of gravity.

Listen: それ

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Sound it out

so Plain s, then a mid-back o that holds one position throughout. English "so" travels toward a w; this vowel is stationary.

re Acoustically this consonant lands somewhere between r, l and d for an English ear, but mechanically it's none of them: the very tip of the tongue makes one lightning contact with the ridge behind the upper teeth and lets go. Then a short front e with no upward glide.

Hear it in a sentence

それは私の席です。

Sore wa watashi no seki desu.

That is my seat.

Listen: それは私の席です。

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それは私の席です strings four short items together with no gaps: sore-wa-watashi-no-seki. 席 is worth attention — se-ki, where the final i sits between a voiceless k and the devoiced su of です, so in normal speech the whole ending can come out as a run of whispered sounds: "seki dess."

Where English speakers slip

The usual English rendering is "SORE-ay," borrowing the English word "sore" wholesale and then adding a diphthong. Both vowels are short and pure, and the r is one instantaneous tap rather than the continuous, lip-rounded English approximant. If your lips move forward before the r, you've already left Japanese.