Mora: Japanese counts beats, not syllables

Each kana is one mora; っ, ー and ん each take a full mora. Faster speech shortens every beat, but the ratio between beats holds.

Six words

Click a cell and count the beats.

or use the + on each cell

In a sentence

How the word sounds in a sentence. Tap the line to hear it all, tap the highlighted word to hear just that part.

Six words, measured

Per-mora = duration ÷ mora count.

WordRomajiMoraeDurationPer mora
ねこneko2420 ms210 ms
やまyama2390 ms195 ms
くるまkuruma3480 ms160 ms
さかなsakana3590 ms197 ms
たまごtamago3510 ms170 ms
おとこotoko3550 ms183 ms

Median 195 ms per mora, range 160–210 ms (26% spread)

How to practise

Where these numbers come from

Mora counts from ja_mora.n_mora(); duration of the speech span.

Isolated words, not connected speech.