Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "分かる" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 分かる in Japanese?

分かる is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /wa.ka.ɾɯ/. It means “to understand.” wa-ka-ru, three even beats with two matching a's and a single tap before the ending.

wa-ka-ru, three even beats with two matching a's and a single tap before the ending.

分かる /wa.ka.ɾɯ/

wakaru

No accent, no peak: three identical slots and a contour that rises off the first and holds. Two identical vowels in the first two beats make this another good diagnostic — if beat two sounds heavier or longer than beat one, English trochaic rhythm is intruding.

Listen: 分かる

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Sound it out

wa The lips compress sideways rather than protruding, then open to a bright short a. English w pushes the lips forward first; Japanese doesn't.

ka A quiet k into an a identical to the one before it. The two a's should be indistinguishable in length and colour.

ru One flick of the tongue tip, then the flat-lipped u. Standard verb ending, standard motion.

Hear it in a sentence

すみません、よく分かりません。

Sumimasen, yoku wakarimasen.

Sorry, I don't understand well.

Listen: すみません、よく分かりません。

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すみません、よく分かりません gives the negative 分かりません, six morae ending in a moraic ん that needs its own full beat. よく in front has a ku prone to devoicing. The whole line is long, and English speakers reliably accelerate through its middle — keeping ません at full length right to the final nasal is the discipline.

Where English speakers slip

The usual output is "wa-KAH-roo," with a stressed lengthened middle and a rounded English-r ending. Level the three beats, match the two a's exactly, tap once, and unround the lips. Learners also round the initial w too hard — Japanese compresses rather than protrudes, which makes the sound lighter than its English counterpart.