Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "それとも" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce それとも in Japanese?

それとも is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /so.ɾe.to.mo/. It means “or (in a question).” so-re-to-mo, four even beats — no stress peak anywhere, despite the word's length.

so-re-to-mo, four even beats — no stress peak anywhere, despite the word's length.

それとも /so.ɾe.to.mo/

soretomo

Four slots at one steady tempo. Longer words are exactly where English speakers insert a stress peak to organise the syllables, usually landing it on the third beat here. Japanese organises by keeping everything equal instead, so the word should sound almost metronomic.

Listen: それとも

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Sound it out

so A short, clean s, then a stationary mid-back o.

re A quick contact and release, then a short front e that holds one position.

to t on the teeth, quiet release, then an o matching the first one.

mo Lips meet and part again for a third o, again identical. Three o's in four beats — keep them all the same.

Hear it in a sentence

コーヒーですか、それとも紅茶ですか。

Koohii desu ka, soretomo koucha desu ka?

Coffee, or tea?

Listen: コーヒーですか、それとも紅茶ですか。

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コーヒーですか、それとも紅茶ですか contains コーヒー, five morae (ko-o-hi-i) with two long vowels — English "coffee" is two syllables and about half as long. Then それとも delivers four flat beats. The contrast between a stretched loanword and an unstretched native connective is the sentence's real lesson.

Where English speakers slip

"so-re-TOE-mo" is the standard version, with a stressed diphthongised third beat. Freeze all three o's so none of them glides, tap once for the re, and level the emphasis. Learners also tend to pause before the word as if it were English "or else" — it attaches directly to what precedes it.