LingoDrop
Japanese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "嬉しい" in Japanese?
u-re-shi-i, four beats, opening on an unrounded u and closing on a long held i.
ureshii
Four morae, with half the word's duration sitting in the final long vowel. That back-weighting is characteristic of the whole -shii adjective family, and it's the opposite of what English does, which is to front-load emphasis and let word endings fade.
Listen: 嬉しい
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
今日はとても嬉しいです。
Kyou wa totemo ureshii desu.
I am very happy today.
Listen: 今日はとても嬉しいです。
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今日はとても嬉しいです stacks three unstressed items before the adjective: 今日 (two morae with a long o), は, とても (three short beats). Getting to 嬉しい with the tempo intact and then adding two beats of held i at the end is the whole exercise. Learners typically arrive out of breath and clip the ending.
Where English speakers slip
"oo-reh-SHEE" is the usual output — a rounded opening vowel, English stress on the last syllable, and a short final i. Unround the u, level the emphasis, and double the closing vowel. The single most audible fix is that final length: a short one makes the word sound curt, which is exactly wrong for a word meaning "happy."