What this tool does

It synthesises Japanese text into speech and plays it back, so you can check how something is read, practise listening, or turn a passage into shadowing material. Hearing a whole sentence surfaces misreadings far more reliably than checking words one at a time in a dictionary.

The hard parts of Japanese cluster around long vowels, geminate consonants, contracted sounds and voicing, plus the on/kun reading switch for kanji compounds — exactly the distinctions that are hard to self-check on the page but obvious once you hear them.

Common uses

Checking how a person, place or shop name is read — particularly where identical kanji take different readings. Turning textbook sentences or a news passage into audio for repeated listening. Reading through what you plan to say before an interview or phone call. Adding pronunciation to a vocabulary list you have built yourself.

Usage notes

Enter or paste Japanese text to synthesise and play it, and save sentences you use often to your favourites for quick recall. The tool requires signing in and is subject to a usage quota — speech synthesis is a metered external service, and the quota is there to prevent abuse.

Frequently asked questions