How to Pronounce '疲れる': Japanese Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce 疲れる in Japanese?

疲れる is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tsɯ.ka.ɾe.ɾɯ/. It means “to get tired.” tsu-ka-re-ru, four beats — a word-initial affricate and then two taps close together.

How do you pronounce "疲れる" in Japanese?

tsu-ka-re-ru, four beats — a word-initial affricate and then two taps close together.

疲れる /tsɯ.ka.ɾe.ɾɯ/

tsukareru

Hard onset, hard ending, and four evenly-cut units through it all; the melody crests on ka. The word packs a difficult onset and a difficult ending around two easy middle beats, and the risk is slowing down for both hard parts — which makes the middle sound rushed by comparison. Keep the tempo flat throughout.

Listen: 疲れる

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Sound it out

tsu The affricate in its hardest position, at the start of a word. Seal for t, release straight into s, all in one motion — English never begins a word this way, so the instinct is to drop the t. The u is unrounded.

ka A quietly released k into a short bright a, giving the word its only open vowel.

re First tap of the tongue tip, then a fixed short e. Quick and light.

ru Second tap, with the tongue returning fully to rest in between so the two don't merge into one long English r. The final u has flat lips.

Hear it in a sentence

今日はとても疲れました。

Kyou wa totemo tsukaremashita.

I'm very tired today.

Listen: 今日はとても疲れました。

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今日はとても疲れました uses the past form 疲れました, six morae ending with a shi-ta that tends toward devoicing. The sentence has no long vowels at all, so all its duration comes from sheer mora count — around eleven beats delivered at a constant pace. English speakers habitually compress it to about seven.

Where English speakers slip

"soo-ka-RAY-roo" shows every fault at once: the t dropped from the affricate, rounded u's, a stressed diphthong in the middle, and one long English r doing the work of two taps. Fix the onset first — you should hear a distinct t inside the tsu — then separate the two taps, then unround both u vowels.