Struggling with the gyokuro pronunciation? You’ve come to the right place!
In this article, we are going to show you both audio and pronunciation guides to help you learn how to pronounce gyokuro the proper way.
By the end of this guide, you’ll learn how to pronounce gyokuro like a native speaker and learn how to avoid the most common pronunciation mistakes.
Gyokuro Pronunciation Audio Guide
Here is a quick gyokuro pronunciation guide. Remember to drop the emphasis on the second syllable and use the guide: GYOH-koo-roh
Pronunciation Mistakes
The most common gyokuro pronunciation mistake is to add a vowel between the G and the Y and say “Gee-yoh-ku-ro.”
This is a habit many English speakers fall into, because it feels more natural in English to separate the consonant sounds with a vowel.
Unfortunately, this changes the rhythm of the word and makes it sound less authentic.
This mistake happens because in English, there are very few words that push together a G and a Y sound as one consonant cluster.
As a result, learners instinctively try to “fix” the sound, but in Japanese, “Gyo” is meant to be one smooth syllable, not two.
Japanese Pronunciation of Gyokuro
Another common pronunciation mistake is putting too much emphasis on the second syllable.
In Japanese, the pitch usually drops on the second syllable rather than being stressed. This gives the word a softer and more balanced sound overall.
It’s not pronounced as GYO-KU-RO with equal stress, but instead as GYO-ku-RO, with the middle part kept lighter.
Listening to native speakers or tea farmers is one of the best ways to internalize the correct pronunciation. With a bit of practice, you’ll be able to say “gyokuro” naturally and with confidence.
The Basics
To truly find out how do you pronounce gyokuro tea we have to look at the origins of the word gyokuro. This tea was first discovered in Ogura, a small suburb of Uji by the farmer Yamamoto Kahei in 1835.
The Japanese alphabets
There are 3 alphabets in Japanese. Hiragana and Katakana are syllable alphabets, so they just teach you how to pronounce a word, not what it actually means. In order to find the meaning of a word, you need to look at the Kanji, which is a pictographic alphabet with symbols for each word.
Gyokuro means “precious dew” and you can tell by looking at the Kanji. 玉 means Jade or Jewel and 露 means dew. Together, it is 玉露 of Jade dew.
If you want to learn more about this fascinating topic, you can read our article on the gyokuro meaning.
Hiragana and Katakana
Now that we’ve covered the Kanji, we can get into the syllable alphabets. In Hiragana, the characters for gyokuro are ぎょくろ. The き would normally make a “K” sound, as in “Kyoto” (きょうと) but the “ creates a vibration in the tone, so K becomes G. ょ is “yo”, く is “ku” and ろ is “ro”.
Katakana is very similar, ギョクロ. The キ is “ki” but it becomes “gi” when the apostrophe is added. ょ turns to ョ and くろ becomes クロ. They all stand for the same characters, but how you write them is different.
Discovering the beauty of Gyokuro tea
Now that you’ve learned how to pronounce gyokuro, it’s time to start drinking it! Gyokuro is the most sought after leaf tea in Japan, and for good reason. The long shading and careful rolling creates a unique sweet and savory flavor that you can’t find elsewhere in the world of tea.
If you want to try the best pesticide free gyokuro we’ve found during our travels around Japan, you can find them by browsing our selection of gyokuro!
The final verdict
We hope you have found this guide helpful when it comes to learning how to pronounce gyokuro. You don’t need to learn Japanese to pronounce some of your favorite Japanese green teas, but it does help to get a basic understanding of the syllable alphabets.
It only takes a few days to get a basic understanding of the different Japanese syllables, and once you get them down you will be able to break Japanese words down into syllables and be able to pronounce them mostly correctly. I would highly recommend it!
