Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "呼ぶ" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 呼ぶ in Japanese?

呼ぶ is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /jo.bɯ/. It means “to call.” yo-bu, two brisk beats, with a pure o and completely flat lips on the final u.

yo-bu, two brisk beats, with a pure o and completely flat lips on the final u.

呼ぶ /jo.bɯ/

yobu

Measure it — two units, same size, with the pitch falling after the first. Short verbs like this leave no room for the English habit of building toward a stressed syllable; the whole word is over in about the time it takes to say the English word "yob."

Listen: 呼ぶ

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Sound it out

yo A y-glide running straight into a stationary o. English "yo" drifts toward a w at the end; here the vowel is fixed from onset to release.

bu A clean b, then the unrounded u. The lips have to close for the b and then immediately spread rather than staying pursed — that transition is what most English speakers get wrong.

Hear it in a sentence

タクシーを呼んでください。

Takushii o yonde kudasai.

Please call a taxi.

Listen: タクシーを呼んでください。

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タクシーを呼んでください uses 呼んで, where the bu becomes a moraic nasal: yo-n-de, three morae with a full beat of humming in the middle. タクシー beforehand is four morae (ta-ku-shi-i) with a devoicing-prone ku and a long final vowel — English "taxi" is two syllables and roughly half as long.

Where English speakers slip

The default English rendering is "YO-boo," with a diphthongised o and a rounded oo. Both vowels need flattening: the o must not move during its beat, and the u must be made with the lips spread rather than pushed forward. Learners also stress the first syllable heavily, which turns a neutral verb into something that sounds like a shout.