Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "と" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce と in Japanese?

と is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /to/. It means “and (between nouns) / with.” One beat: a dental t and a pure short o, said with no puff of air.

One beat: a dental t and a pure short o, said with no puff of air.

と /to/

One mora, unstressed by nature. Like other particles it attaches rhythmically to the word before it, so a noun plus と counts as one continuous string of beats rather than two separate items with a gap between them.

Listen: と

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

to Contact is on the back of the upper teeth rather than the ridge behind them, and the release is clean with no aspiration — English "toe" sends out a noticeable puff that Japanese doesn't. The vowel is short and unmoving.

Hear it in a sentence

パンと牛乳を買います。

Pan to gyuunyuu o kaimasu.

I'll buy bread and milk.

Listen: パンと牛乳を買います。

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

パンと牛乳を買います links two nouns, and both are rhythmically interesting: パン is two morae (pa-n) with the nasal taking its own beat, and 牛乳 is four (gyu-u-nyu-u) with two long vowels and two palatalised consonants. The little と between them stays exactly one beat long no matter how heavy its neighbours are.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers aspirate the t hard and lengthen the vowel into "toe," which makes a one-mora particle sound like a stressed word. Hold your hand in front of your mouth: if you feel air, soften the release. And keep the o from gliding — the lips shouldn't move at all during the vowel.