In Japanese, "say" is 言う (iu). It is a verb pronounced "ee-oo".
Listen to the pronunciation:
言う is written in kanji and hiragana. Romanised as iu, it sounds roughly like "ee-oo" to an English ear.
子供たちは言いますのが楽しそうです。
Kodomotachi wa iimasu no ga tanoshisou desu.
The children seem to enjoy saying.
言う means to say in Japanese. This is an everyday verb that learners encounter early. Mastering its masu form (言います) and te-form opens up many sentence patterns.
Curated by Jack Ratcliffe
Practice 言う and hundreds more Japanese words in the game.
Buy on Steam言う is romanised as iu. Say it roughly like "ee-oo" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.
言う is the plain (dictionary) form, used in casual speech and in dictionaries. For polite situations, verbs take a different ending, typically -masu. In Noun Town the game always shows the dictionary form.
言う is written using kanji and hiragana. 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.
Spot an error? Email us at contact@noun.town