Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "正しい" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 正しい in Japanese?

正しい is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ta.da.ɕiː/. It means “right / correct.” ta-da-shi-i, four beats — a dental t and d back to back, then a long held i.

ta-da-shi-i, four beats — a dental t and d back to back, then a long held i.

正しい /ta.da.ɕiː/

tadashii

Four morae, back-weighted by the long final vowel. The pair ta-da is where the rhythm usually goes wrong for English speakers: because the two morae are so similar, English instinctively makes one of them stronger. Both should be identical in length and loudness.

Listen: 正しい

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Sound it out

ta The tongue tip touches the back of the upper teeth, not the ridge behind them, and releases without a puff of air.

da The voiced counterpart in exactly the same place, with an identical a after it. Two consecutive dental stops with matching vowels — a good check on whether you're keeping the tongue forward.

shii A thin palatal hiss, then an i occupying two full morae. It's one continuous vowel; don't rearticulate it in the middle.

Hear it in a sentence

正しい答えを選んでください。

Tadashii kotae o erande kudasai.

Please choose the right answer.

Listen: 正しい答えを選んでください。

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正しい答えを選んでください includes 選んで, where a moraic ん sits before the d and takes its own beat (e-ra-n-de), and 答え (ko-ta-e), three morae ending in a bare vowel that must not fuse with the a before it. Between them, the sentence exercises a nasal beat and a vowel sequence.

Where English speakers slip

"ta-DA-shee" carries English stress on the second beat — helped along by the fact that "ta-da!" is an English exclamation — and then cuts the final vowel short. Neither beat of ta-da is emphasised in Japanese, both dental stops stay soft and forward, and the closing i runs for two full counts.