Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "太陽" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 太陽 in Japanese?

太陽 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ta.i.joː/. It means “sun.” ta-i-yo-o, four beats — the ta and i are separate, and the final o runs long.

ta-i-yo-o, four beats — the ta and i are separate, and the final o runs long.

太陽 /ta.i.joː/

taiyou

Four beats: two short ones at the front and a long vowel filling the back half. English delivers this in two syllables, which halves it. Separate the opening vowels and then hold the closing o for a genuine double count.

Listen: 太陽

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Sound it out

ta The tongue meets the upper teeth for the t and releases without a puff, giving a bright short a.

i A clipped, tense i taking its own beat, straight off the a. English fuses these into the vowel of "tie"; Japanese keeps two.

you A y-glide into an o held for two full counts. One syllable, two morae, and no "oo" sound despite the romaji.

Hear it in a sentence

今日は太陽が出ています。

Kyou wa taiyou ga dete imasu.

The sun is out today.

Listen: 今日は太陽が出ています。

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今日は太陽が出ています opens with 今日 (kyo-o), itself a long vowel, so the sentence contains two held o's within a few words of each other. Between them, が and 出て are short and quick — a good demonstration of how Japanese alternates held and unheld beats.

Where English speakers slip

"tie-YO" is the standard collapse: opening vowels fused, closing vowel shortened, and stress somewhere in the middle. That's two beats out of four. Pulse the ta and i apart, then hold the final o until it feels overlong — it probably still isn't.