LingoDrop
Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "아내" in Korean?
a-nae. Two short syllables with a forward n between them, and the second vowel is the flat ㅐ, not an English long a.
anae
Two short beats. The word is a good place to practise ㅐ in isolation, because there is nothing else demanding in it and the vowel is exposed at the end, where any glide you add will be audible.
Listen: 아내
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
제 아내는 변호사예요.
Je anaeneun byeonhosayeyo.
My wife is a lawyer.
Listen: 제 아내는 변호사예요.
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제 아내는 변호사예요 follows with 변호사, where the ㅎ sits between a nasal and a vowel and lenites, so the word lands close to byeo-no-sa in relaxed speech.
Where English speakers slip
'a-nay' with an English diphthong is what most learners produce, and the glide is the giveaway, since Korean's ㅐ holds one position from beginning to end. The other habit is a glottal stop before the first vowel, which makes the word start with a small click that Korean does not have.