In Japanese, "lightning" is 雷 (kaminari). It is a adjective pronounced "kah-mee-nah-ree".
Listen to the pronunciation:
雷 is written in kanji. Romanised as kaminari, it sounds roughly like "kah-mee-nah-ree" to an English ear.
遠くで雷の音が聞こえます。
Tooku de kaminari no oto ga kikoemasu.
I can hear the sound of thunder in the distance.
Kaminari (雷) means thunder or lightning. Summer thunderstorms are common in Japan, and there is a folk tradition of children hiding their belly buttons during storms.
Practice 雷 and hundreds more Japanese words in the game.
Buy on Steam雷 is romanised as kaminari. Say it roughly like "kah-mee-nah-ree" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.
雷 is a na-adjective or noun-adjective. It is neutral in register and fits naturally in both casual and polite sentences. Add na before a noun, or use desu for a polite predicate.
雷 is written using kanji. Kanji characters carry the core meaning; any hiragana or katakana that follow show grammatical endings.
This word is part of the vocabulary taught in the Japanese language learning game Noun Town, where words are introduced through play rather than memorisation.
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