Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "아니다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 아니다 in Korean?

아니다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a.ni.da/. It means “to not be.” a-ni-da, three light beats. The ㄷ voices into a real d because vowels surround it, and none of the three syllables takes a stress.

a-ni-da, three light beats. The ㄷ voices into a real d because vowels surround it, and none of the three syllables takes a stress.

아니다 /a.ni.da/

anida

No accent on any of the three blocks. Like 이다, this citation form is rarely spoken aloud -- what you actually say is 아니에요 or 아닙니다, and in that second form the ㅂ nasalizes to m in front of ㄴ, exactly as it does in 감사합니다.

Listen: 아니다

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Sound it out

a Clean, open 'ah' with no glottal stop in front of it -- English adds one reflexively before initial vowels.

ni Forward n made near the teeth, plus a tight 'ee' with no sag toward the vowel of 'sit'.

da Intervocalic ㄷ, so genuinely voiced and soft, carrying an open 'ah' behind it.

Hear it in a sentence

저는 학생이 아니에요.

Jeoneun haksaengi anieyo.

I am not a student.

Listen: 저는 학생이 아니에요.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

저는 학생이 아니에요 hands you a resyllabification right before the verb: 학생 ends in ㅇ, and the subject particle 이 takes it over, so the phrase runs hak-saeng-i a-ni-e-yo with the ng sustained across the join.

Where English speakers slip

Stressing the middle syllable and aspirating the d gives 'ah-NEE-tah', and neither belongs. The consonant sits between vowels and should be soft and voiced, while all three syllables get equal weight. It also pays to keep this distinct from 아니요 -- one is the negative copula, the other is the word 'no', and they are not interchangeable.