How to pronunce "tsunami"

tsunami, a common synonym of "tidal wave", is a very large ocean wave that is caused by an underwater earthquake and pronounced as [tsu:'na:mi].

Hope the above helps.

I usually prounounce tsunami as "suunamii"

On the US national news they are pronouncing it as:

"sue NAH me"

or phonetically: /su na' mi/

The original Japanese pronunciation is tsu:'na:mi as MCHK said. Some people may have a little difficulty with the tsu sound. It's a little like sneezing with your mouth.

In the original Japanese it is pronounced with three syllables: tsu na mi . No syllable is stressed. I think the correct English pronunciation should be very similar to the Japanese.

I think that the correct pronounciation of Tsunami is that the 'T' syllable must be silent and the second syllable 'sunami' must as su na mi. In japanese it is called "A big stroming wave"...

Thanks Vinodram, but in Japanese the difference between a 's' sound and a 'ts' sound is very very important. From the point of view of correct Japanese pronunciation 'sunami' is completely incorrect.

Is it important to get it right? Someone with a better knowledge of Japanese may like to show us how confusing these sounds can produce words with completely unintended meanings, and theref

Thanks for your corrections Mike!
I heard it all on the NEWS channels and so i thought that it's the correct way to spell this word 'Tsunami'.

how do you say tsunami

Many Americans ignore the t, but it really isn't that difficult. As for the vowel sounds, they are 'ooo' 'aaah' and 'eee'.