In Japanese, "whale" is クジラ (kujira). It is a noun.
Listen to the pronunciation:
クジラ is written in katakana. Romanised as kujira, it sounds roughly like "koo-jee-rah" to an English ear.
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Buy on Steamクジラ is romanised as kujira. Say it roughly like "koo-jee-rah" in English. Each Japanese syllable has even weight, so keep the rhythm steady.
クジラ is a neutral, everyday word that works in both casual and polite speech. The level of formality comes from the sentence structure around it, not from the word itself.
クジラ is written using katakana. Katakana is typically used for words of foreign origin or to give emphasis.
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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