Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "夕方" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 夕方 in Japanese?

夕方 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /jɯː.ɡa.ta/. It means “evening.” yu-u-ga-ta, four beats — the opening yu is held for two of them.

yu-u-ga-ta, four beats — the opening yu is held for two of them.

夕方 /jɯː.ɡa.ta/

yuugata

Four slots, two of them occupied by a single long vowel at the front. That gives the word a heavy opening and a light finish — the reverse of what English does, which is to keep the first syllable strong but short and let later ones drag.

Listen: 夕方

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Sound it out

yuu The y-glide runs into an unrounded u which is then sustained for a second beat. Lips flat throughout, and no rearticulation in the middle: one continuous sound of double length.

ga The g is fully hard here, opening onto a bright short a. Many Tokyo speakers nasalise this consonant mid-word toward "nga."

ta Dental contact for the t, then a second a identical to the first.

Hear it in a sentence

夕方に会いましょう。

Yuugata ni aimashou.

Let's meet in the evening.

Listen: 夕方に会いましょう。

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夕方に会いましょう ends with 会いましょう, where 会い is two separate vowel beats and ましょう carries a long o. So the sentence contains a long vowel at the beginning, a vowel pair in the middle and another long vowel at the end — three distinct length decisions in nine morae.

Where English speakers slip

"YOO-ga-ta" rounds the opening vowel, shortens it to one beat, and stresses it. Three fixes: flatten the lips, hold the vowel for two counts, and level the emphasis. Because the length sits at the front, learners who shorten it lose a quarter of the word before they've properly started.