Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "배부르다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 배부르다 in Korean?

배부르다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /pɛ.bu.ɾɯ.da/. It means “to be full (stomach).” bae-bu-reu-da. Two ㅂ letters doing different jobs, and a lip change from rounded to flat across the last two syllables.

bae-bu-reu-da. Two ㅂ letters doing different jobs, and a lip change from rounded to flat across the last two syllables.

배부르다 /pɛ.bu.ɾɯ.da/

baebureuda

Four blocks, all the same length. The word is literally 배 plus 부르다 -- stomach plus 'to be full' -- and the compound seam falls after the first syllable, though nothing in the sound marks it.

Listen: 배부르다

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Sound it out

bae Plain ㅂ, barely voiced word-initially, over the low front ㅐ. Short and flat, with no glide.

bu The same letter between vowels, so a genuine b, with a rounded ㅜ behind it.

reu The ㄹ flicks once against the ridge and gives way to ㅡ. The lips must unround immediately after 부, which is the hard part of this word.

da Voiced, quick, and gone the moment the verb conjugates.

Hear it in a sentence

많이 먹어서 배불러요.

Mani meogeoseo baebulleoyo.

I ate a lot, so I'm full.

Listen: 많이 먹어서 배불러요.

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

많이 먹어서 배불러요 gives the 르-irregular form 배불러요 with its long held l, and 많이 at the front deletes its ㅎ entirely, coming out as ma-ni. The sentence opens with a deleted consonant and closes with a doubled one.

Where English speakers slip

The rounded-to-flat vowel transitions catch people out, and 'bae-boo-roo-da' with three rounded vowels is the common result, when only 부 is rounded. Learners also start with a hard English b, when word-initial ㅂ has almost no voicing at all.