Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "雪" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 雪 in Japanese?

雪 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /jɯ.ki̥/. It means “snow.” yu-ki, two short beats — an unrounded u and a final i that often whispers.

yu-ki, two short beats — an unrounded u and a final i that often whispers.

雪 /jɯ.ki̥/

yuki

Two matched beats. In standard speech the pitch rises across the word and then falls on a following particle, so 雪が has the drop after the noun rather than inside it — the same 尾高 pattern as 山.

Listen: 雪

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Sound it out

yu The y-glide and the unrounded u in one mora. The lips stay flat throughout, which is what makes it different from English "you."

ki A k with palatal colouring before the i, and a vowel that tends to devoice at the end of a word after a voiceless consonant.

Hear it in a sentence

山には雪があります。

Yama ni wa yuki ga arimasu.

There's snow in the mountains.

Listen: 山には雪があります。

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山には雪があります pairs two 尾高 nouns in one line, 山 and 雪, both followed by particles that carry their pitch drop. あります afterwards has a tap and ends with a devoiced su, so the sentence trails off into breath.

Where English speakers slip

"YOO-kee" rounds the u, stresses the first beat, and stretches the final vowel. Spread the lips — Japanese ゆ has no rounding at all — and let the closing i devoice. Learners also aspirate the k, which gives the word a percussive quality it shouldn't have.