It's okay to pronounce it like the English word say. The world won't end.

Roberto12:It's okay to pronounce it like the English word say. The world won't end.

But why?

Because there's no word sej.

Alkanadi:Does the Esperanto word "se" sound like the English word "say"?

Probably not so much - the english 'say' would be spelled sej in Esperanto.

To me, with my accent, the esperanto 'se' rhymes with 'heh' or 'meh', or the beginning of the name Seth, September, sentient. However it's not very useful to *write out* english syllables that sound like the esperanto 'e' sound, because there are so many regional variations of the spoken English sounds. Depending on whether you are from Scotland or New Zealand or India or Texas or Brazil, you are going to pronounce written english vowels quite a bit differently from other English speakers. Likewise there is considerable regional variation in Esperanto pronunciation. The important thing is to make sure all your vowel sounds are distinct from each other, because they can change the meaning of words so easily.

You can hear 'se' pronounced here. (Forvo.com is a useful site! There are *lots* of Esperanto words pronounced here! )

One nice thing about esperanto is that the letters are (almost -more below) always pronounced the same no matter how they appear in a word, so you don't have to guess at the pronunciation. If you listen to the alphabet here you can simply combine the sounds of s and e. Thus se, sen, sed, semo, seĝo and seksabstineco all start with the same sound as se. Also, the Esperanto double ee sound isn't an english hard e, it's just two esperanto e's in a row: ĉeesto -> cheh-EHS-toe. The ea sound is also two separate syllables: realo -> rrreh-AH-low. Neutila -> neh-oo-TEE-lah, and so on. Just pronounce every letter in the order it appears and add emphasis on the second-last syllable.

In fact the only exceptions, with e, are the eŭ sound, which is classified as a diphthong but in practice is pronounced as a tight, blurred eh-oo, as in eŭropa, and ej, which is not classified as a diphthong but is nevertheless is mostly pronounced as a single vowel, the english hard a, rhyming with the english 'say', as in hejmo, (although one might consider that sound to be a quick eh-ee.)

This is because in Esperanto j and ŭ are considered 'half vowels', and they do modify the sound of the vowel preceding them. Here's how I pronounce them:

a -> 'caw'
aj -> 'high'
aŭ -> 'ow!'

e -> 'Beth'
ej -> 'hey!'
eŭ -> 'eww!' ( approx. )

i -> 'wee!'
ij -> doesn't occur as a single syllable
iŭ -> doesn't occur

o -> 'oh!'
oj -> 'oi!'
oŭ -> I'm going to go out on a limb and say this isn't used anymore

u -> 'goo'
uj -> 'gooey'
uŭ -> not used, and looks ridiculous.

Alkanadi:Does the Esperanto word "se" sound like the English word "say"?

Here is a story and text in Esperanto. 'Se' is not in it but notice the pronunciation of 'de' - the e in 'se' is pronounced the same.

LINK

EDIT: I have just found 'se' in this one. LINK

eric_vandenburg:
u -> 'goo'
uj -> 'gooey'
uŭ -> not used, and looks ridiculous.

I think "uj" is supposed to be like "uy" in the Spanish word "muy" (NOT like in the English word "guy"!). "Gooey" as I say it has a more pronounced "ee" sound.

I've heard the dodgy "gooey" pronunciation a couple of times before. I think people use it because they feel they need to distinguish uj from oj, when in reality, you can comfortably get away with pronouncing them more or less the same. NB, the officially correct distinction can be made without too much trouble when a vowel comes next (e.g. ujo) so the "hack" I'm recommending applies when this isn't the case.

The problem is that English doesn't have an uj sound. I often explain it using the spanish word "muy" but if someone doesn't know that word, then saying "it's like pronouncing gooey in one syllable instead of two" isn't bad.

... you people should learn the IPA. It is the esperanto of phonetics.

"se" is pronounced /sɛ/

Cocio_16:... you people should learn the IPA. It is the esperanto of phonetics.

"se" is pronounced /sɛ/

Because that's a totally helpful way to explain the proper punctuation to a layperson. Some of these people may well know the IPA but choose to use more practical methods to explain it. Someone who doesn't know IPA wouldn't have a clue what /ɛ/ sounds like!

That said, to the OP: /ɛ/ is the same sound as the "e" in bed. Keep that in mind for all occurrences of the letter "e" in Esperanto - while you may accidentally glide into the "ay" sound in "say," if you focus on keeping the sound short and staccato you'll get it right more often. Don't stress out too much about accidentally turning "e" into "ej" - "ej" occurs so rarely in Esperanto that it's practically allophonic. While it may give you an obvious accent, people should be able to understand you fine. Just work your hardest to get it right as much as possible and eventually you'll get used to it! Once you know what you're doing wrong it gets easier.