Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "スポーツ" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce スポーツ in Japanese?

スポーツ is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /sɯ̥.poː.tsɯ̥/. It means “sport.” su-po-o-tsu, four beats — a whispered opening, a long o, and a real affricate at the end.

su-po-o-tsu, four beats — a whispered opening, a long o, and a real affricate at the end.

スポーツ /sɯ̥.poː.tsɯ̥/

supootsu

Four beats for a word English delivers in two syllables, and two of those four are barely voiced. The extra length comes from an inserted vowel at the front and a lengthened one in the middle — a very typical loanword reshaping.

Listen: スポーツ

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Sound it out

su An inserted vowel that Japanese needs because it can't begin a word with "sp." Caught between silence and a voiceless p, it devoices, so this beat is essentially a hiss.

poo A p released without the strong English puff, opening onto an o held for two full counts. The katakana ー carries the length.

tsu One indivisible affricate closing the word, with another devoicing-prone u — so the final beat is largely a sustained "ts."

Hear it in a sentence

週に三回スポーツをします。

Shuu ni san-kai supootsu o shimasu.

I do sports three times a week.

Listen: 週に三回スポーツをします。

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週に三回スポーツをします opens with 週 (shu-u), two morae from one syllable, and 三回 (sa-n-ka-i) with a nasal beat and a vowel pair. So before the loanword arrives, the sentence has already asked for a long vowel, a hum and two separated vowels.

Where English speakers slip

Saying English "sports" with a Japanese accent gives two beats instead of four and keeps the final s as a consonant. Japanese has an inserted u at both ends: the first whispered, the second attached to a genuine tsu. Hold the middle o for two counts and keep every u unrounded.