Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "とても" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce とても in Japanese?

とても is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /to.te.mo/. It means “very.” to-te-mo, three quick beats — all short, all equal, none of them stressed.

to-te-mo, three quick beats — all short, all equal, none of them stressed.

とても /to.te.mo/

totemo

Rhythmically this is as plain as Japanese gets: three short slots and no accent to break the flatness. Because the word means "very," English speakers instinctively want to emphasise it — but Japanese conveys the intensification lexically, and the word itself is delivered completely flat.

Listen: とても

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Sound it out

to Dental t, released quietly, into a stationary short o.

te The same dental t with a short front e that holds one position. English speakers slide toward "tay" here; keep the tongue anchored.

mo A lip closure and then an o matching the first one exactly. The word begins and ends on the same vowel, which makes any inequality obvious.

Hear it in a sentence

このケーキはとてもおいしいです。

Kono keeki wa totemo oishii desu.

This cake is very good.

Listen: このケーキはとてもおいしいです。

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

このケーキはとてもおいしいです surrounds it with two long vowels: ケーキ (ke-e-ki) with a held first vowel, and おいしい with a held final one. Between them sits とても with nothing held at all. Saying the sentence at one tempo makes the contrast between held and unheld beats obvious.

Where English speakers slip

The trap here is emphasis. Because "very" is a word English stresses for effect, learners produce "toh-TEH-moh" with a big middle and glided vowels. Japanese wants three identical short beats and no rise at all. Freeze the o's so they don't drift toward w, keep the e from becoming "ay," and resist making the word louder than its neighbours.