Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "바꾸다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 바꾸다 in Korean?

바꾸다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /pa.k͈u.da/. It means “to change.” ba-kku-da. The middle consonant is a tensed ㄲ, so it needs a locked throat and no puff of air, even though vowels sit on both sides of it.

ba-kku-da. The middle consonant is a tensed ㄲ, so it needs a locked throat and no puff of air, even though vowels sit on both sides of it.

바꾸다 /pa.k͈u.da/

bakkuda

Three blocks delivered flat. The word doubles as a test of whether your tensed consonants are real, because this ㄲ is surrounded by vowels -- precisely where a plain ㄱ would voice into a g -- so if the middle consonant sounds like a g, the tension is missing.

Listen: 바꾸다

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

Sound it out

ba Plain ㅂ at the front of a word, quiet and barely voiced, over a wide open 'ah'.

kku Tensed ㄲ. Even between vowels it refuses to soften -- tensed consonants never voice, and that is exactly what separates them from plain ones in this position.

da Voiced by its neighbours and deliberately weak, so the tensed ㄲ in the middle stands out.

Hear it in a sentence

일을 바꾸고 싶어요.

Ireul bakkugo sipeoyo.

I want to change jobs.

Listen: 일을 바꾸고 싶어요.

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

일을 바꾸고 싶어요 conjugates to 바꾸고, and the plain ㄱ of 고 does voice between vowels, so the word ends up containing a tensed ㄲ and a soft g back to back. Hearing those two consonants inside one word is the clearest available demonstration of the contrast.

Where English speakers slip

The near-universal error is a plain or aspirated middle consonant, giving 바구다 or 바쿠다, and neither is a word. Build pressure with the throat closed and release without breath. Learners also start with a full English b, when the initial ㅂ has almost no voicing and sits closer to the p in 'spa'.