How do you pronounce 안녕하세요 (annyeonghaseyo) in Korean?

Annyeonghaseyo is pronounced ahn-nyawng-hah-seh-yo, said as five syllable beats of close to equal weight rather than with English-style stress on any one syllable. In IPA it is written /an.njʌŋ.ha.se.jo/. In natural, fast speech the h in the middle often softens almost to nothing, so it can sound closer to annyeong-aseyo.

How to Pronounce '안녕하세요' (Annyeonghaseyo): Korean Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "안녕하세요" in Korean?

ahn-nyawng-hah-seh-yo, said as five short beats with no single syllable stressed. In IPA: /an.njʌŋ.ha.se.jo/.

안녕하세요 annyeonghaseyo /an.njʌŋ.ha.se.jo/

Five syllable blocks: an-nyeong-ha-se-yo. Korean doesn't put heavy stress on one syllable the way English does, so keep the beats close to even and let the greeting rise gently through the middle before settling at the end.

Listen: 안녕하세요

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Sound it out, syllable by syllable

Korean writing groups sounds into syllable blocks, so 안녕하세요 already comes pre-divided for you into five pieces. Say each block on its own first, then run them together at an even pace.

안 an: an open "ah" that closes into a nasal n at the back of the mouth, close to the "an" in "on" said with an American accent.

녕 nyeong: starts with the "ny" glide from "canyon," the core vowel is a flatter, more relaxed sound than English "uh," and it ends in one nasal "ng" sound, not n plus g.

하 ha: a light "hah." At natural conversational speed the h here often softens almost to nothing between the surrounding vowels, so this syllable can nearly disappear.

세 se: a clean, single "seh," held steady, not glided the way English "say" slides toward an "ee" at the end.

요 yo: a quick y-glide into a short, pure "oh," lighter and shorter than the drawn-out "yo!" of English slang.

Hear it in a sentence

안녕하세요, 잘 지내세요?

Annyeonghaseyo, jal jinaeseyo?

Hello, how are you?

Listen: 안녕하세요, 잘 지내세요?

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잘 지내세요 literally asks whether the other person is "getting along well," so the pair together is closer in feel to "hello, how have you been" than to a reflexive nicety you tack onto every greeting. It reads most naturally with someone you haven't seen in a little while, a coworker after a trip, a friend you're catching up with, rather than as a script for every single hello.

Where English speakers slip

The most common mistake is reaching for English-style stress. Learners often hit one syllable hard, usually landing on "nyeong" or punching the final "yo" like they're calling out to someone. Korean doesn't stress individual syllables that way. All five beats should carry close to equal weight, with the pitch rising gently through the middle of the word and settling by the end, not one syllable getting louder or longer than the rest.

The vowel in 녕 also trips people up. English speakers tend to round it into something closer to "aw" (as in "dawn") or flatten it into a plain schwa. The real sound sits more open and relaxed than either of those, with the tongue lower and more central than the pulled-back "aw," so "nyeong" ends up sounding like "nyawng" only if you exaggerate the rounding, when the vowel itself should stay looser than that.