Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "友達" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 友達 in Japanese?

友達 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /to.mo.da.tɕi̥/. It means “friend.” to-mo-da-chi, four even beats, with a light affricate at the end whose vowel often whispers.

to-mo-da-chi, four even beats, with a light affricate at the end whose vowel often whispers.

友達 /to.mo.da.tɕi̥/

tomodachi

Four slots at one steady tempo, and standard speech leaves the word unaccented, so the melody rises after to and stays level. Four-beat words are where English most reliably inserts a stress peak; here there is none to insert.

Listen: 友達

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Sound it out

to A quiet dental t, then a stationary short o.

mo A lip closure and an o matching the first one exactly.

da A dental d — the same tongue position as the opening t, now voiced — into a bright short a.

chi One affricate formed with the tongue blade against the palate, lighter than English ch. At the end of a word the i frequently devoices, so the word can trail off on hiss.

Hear it in a sentence

彼は私の一番の友達です。

Kare wa watashi no ichiban no tomodachi desu.

He is my best friend.

Listen: 彼は私の一番の友達です。

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

彼は私の一番の友達です contains 一番 (i-chi-ba-n), four morae with an affricate and a closing nasal. So the sentence has two affricates — one in 一番, one ending 友達 — and both should be lighter and further forward than English ch.

Where English speakers slip

"toh-mo-DAH-chee" stresses the third beat, glides the o's, and fully voices a long final vowel. Level all four beats, freeze both o's, and let the closing i devoice. Learners familiar with the word from anime often also over-aspirate the ch, which Japanese keeps notably softer.