Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "海" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 海 in Japanese?

海 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɯ.mi/. It means “sea.” u-mi, two short beats, opening on an unrounded u — lips flat, not pursed.

u-mi, two short beats, opening on an unrounded u — lips flat, not pursed.

海 /ɯ.mi/

umi

Both beats are equally short, with the melody high on the first and dropping onto the second. Neither vowel is lengthened, which makes the word noticeably quicker than an English speaker's first attempt at two syllables.

Listen: 海

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Sound it out

u Japanese's high back vowel made with the lips flat and slightly spread. Starting a word on it is awkward for English mouths, which round automatically for anything resembling "oo."

mi The lips meet for the m and open onto a short tense i, roughly half the duration English gives "me."

Hear it in a sentence

夏は海に行きます。

Natsu wa umi ni ikimasu.

In summer I go to the sea.

Listen: 夏は海に行きます。

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夏は海に行きます opens with 夏 (na-tsu), whose affricate must be a single gesture, and closes with 行きます, where the ki tends to devoice. So the sentence runs from an unrounded u through an affricate to a whispered vowel, all at the same tempo.

Where English speakers slip

"OO-mee" rounds the opening vowel, stretches it, and doubles the length of the final i. The rounding is the loud error — check in a mirror that your lips stay flat as the word begins. Then halve the i and keep both beats matched.