Kawaii is the
Japanese word for
cute. In
english it is usually reserved for
anime girls. It has
4 syllables:
ka wa i i.
If you pronounce it with
english pronunciation, it sounds similar to the word "
Kowai", which means
scary/
afraid. That is because in
english, you don't fully pronounce
nonstressed vowels, so kawai becomes kuh why. But in
Japanese, you must pronounce all the
vowels, so there is a difference.