Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "年" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 年 in Japanese?

年 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /to.ɕi̥/. It means “year.” to-shi, two beats — and that final vowel usually devoices, so the word ends on a soft hiss.

to-shi, two beats — and that final vowel usually devoices, so the word ends on a soft hiss.

年 /to.ɕi̥/

toshi

Duration is identical across the two; the melody starts high and falls. The second beat may be barely audible, but it is still measured out: a native 年 sounds like "tosh" with a trailing breath, not like a single clipped syllable.

Listen: 年

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Sound it out

to The t is made on the teeth and released softly, giving a stationary short o that doesn't glide toward w.

shi A fine forward hiss made with the tongue blade, and an i that commonly devoices at the end of a word — leaving little more than the friction behind.

Hear it in a sentence

今年はいい年でした。

Kotoshi wa ii toshi deshita.

This year was a good year.

Listen: 今年はいい年でした。

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今年はいい年でした uses two different readings of the same kanji — 今年 is read "kotoshi" and 年 alone is "toshi." Both contain the same devoicing-prone shi, and the sentence also gives you いい with its long i held for two beats. Two kinds of vowel behaviour, opposite in effect.

Where English speakers slip

"TOE-shee" glides the first vowel, stresses it, and fully voices a long second one. Freeze the o, shorten the i, and let it go voiceless. Learners who voice this ending strongly also tend to hear 年 as two heavy syllables, which makes the word considerably longer than a native version.