Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "時計" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 時計 in Japanese?

時計 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /to.keː/. It means “clock / watch.” to-ke-e, three beats — the "kei" merges into a long e, so it sounds like "tokee."

to-ke-e, three beats — the "kei" merges into a long e, so it sounds like "tokee."

時計 /to.keː/

tokei

Three beats, two of them a single sustained vowel at the end. The word is back-weighted in duration, which reverses English intuition — English would put the strength early and let the ending fade.

Listen: 時計

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Sound it out

to The tongue meets the upper teeth for the t and releases quietly into a stationary short o.

kei Written k plus e plus i, but pronounced as a k followed by an e held for two full counts. The i in the spelling marks length, not a separate vowel — one of Japanese's standard orthographic quirks.

Hear it in a sentence

時計が止まっています。

Tokei ga tomatte imasu.

The clock has stopped.

Listen: 時計が止まっています。

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時計が止まっています uses 止まって with a geminate: to-ma-t-te, four morae including a beat of held silence. So the sentence pairs a lengthened vowel with a lengthened silence — the two main ways Japanese buys extra time.

Where English speakers slip

"toh-KAY" is the standard version: a glided first vowel and an English diphthong on the end. Japanese merges e and i into one steady long e — no movement of the tongue during it. Hold it for two counts and keep the opening o short and fixed.