Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "洋服" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 洋服 in Japanese?

洋服 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /joː.ɸɯ.kɯ̥/. It means “clothes.” yo-o-fu-ku, four beats — a long o, a bilabial "fu," and a final u that whispers.

yo-o-fu-ku, four beats — a long o, a bilabial "fu," and a final u that whispers.

洋服 /joː.ɸɯ.kɯ̥/

youfuku

Four beats, with the length at the front and the voicing draining away toward the back. Only the first half of the word is clearly audible as vowel sound; the rest is a bilabial breath and a whispered ending, yet all four counts are there.

Listen: 洋服

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Sound it out

you A y-glide into an o held for two full counts. The u in the romaji is a length mark, never a vowel of its own.

fu No teeth involved: the two lips come close and air passes between them, like a soft candle-blow. The u that follows is unrounded.

ku A quiet k with a u that devoices at the end of the word, so the noun finishes on breath.

Hear it in a sentence

新しい洋服を買いました。

Atarashii youfuku o kaimashita.

I bought new clothes.

Listen: 新しい洋服を買いました。

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新しい洋服を買いました opens with 新しい, five morae ending on a long i, and closes with 買いました, whose ka-i must stay two separate beats. So the sentence has two long vowels and one vowel pair, all in one line.

Where English speakers slip

"YO-foo-koo" shortens the long vowel, uses an English f, and rounds both u's. Hold the opening o for two counts, take the teeth off the lip, and spread the lips for both u vowels. The bilabial ふ is the single most distinctive thing in the word.