Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "全然" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 全然 in Japanese?

全然 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /dzen.zeɴ/. It means “(not) at all (used with a negative).” ze-n-ze-n, four beats — two vowels and two nasal hums, alternating.

ze-n-ze-n, four beats — two vowels and two nasal hums, alternating.

全然 /dzen.zeɴ/

zenzen

Four slots, half of them vowel-less. The word alternates vowel-nasal-vowel-nasal, which makes it an ideal drill: you can literally feel the two hums taking as much time as the two vowels. English delivers it in two syllables and loses half its length.

Listen: 全然

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Sound it out

ze Word-initially this is a voiced affricate closer to "dz" than to a plain z, into a short front e that doesn't glide.

n Nasal resonance takes this entire beat, and because a z follows, the tongue stays near the teeth-ridge — so it's a held n rather than the back-of-the-mouth version.

ze Mid-word this consonant softens toward a plain buzzing z, with the same short e as before. The two ze morae should match in length.

n The closing nasal, now made far back with the mouth open. A whole beat of resonance to finish on.

Hear it in a sentence

この漢字は全然読めません。

Kono kanji wa zenzen yomemasen.

I can't read this kanji at all.

Listen: この漢字は全然読めません。

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この漢字は全然読めません is a sentence with three moraic nasals in it — 漢字, 全然 twice, and ません at the end. That's four vowel-less beats in one line. Counting them all is the difference between sounding like you're reading and sounding like you're speaking.

Where English speakers slip

"ZEN-zen" in two syllables is what English produces, treating both n's as consonants closing their syllables. They're beats. Hum each one for its own count, and notice they're not identical: the first sits at the teeth-ridge because a z follows, the second is made further back. Four counts, not two.