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Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "밤" in Korean?

bam. One syllable: a plain ㅂ with almost no voicing, an open 'ah', and a lip-closed m.

밤 /pam/

bam

One brief syllable. Because the final consonant is a nasal rather than a stop, the syllable can be held slightly longer than words ending in ㅂ or ㄱ, though Korean still keeps it brief.

Listen: 밤

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Sound it out

ba Word-initial ㅂ, quieter than an English b and closer to the p in 'spot'. The vowel is wide and open.
m Final ㅁ. The lips come together and the sound ends in nasal resonance, with no release afterwards.

Hear it in a sentence

밤에 책을 읽어요.

Bame chaegeul ilgeoyo.

I read books at night.

Listen: 밤에 책을 읽어요.

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밤에 책을 읽어요 attaches 에 to 밤, so the ㅁ resyllabifies forward and gives ba-me. Then 책을 and 읽어요 both do the same thing with their own batchims, making this a sentence of three consecutive consonant migrations.

Where English speakers slip

Starting with a fully voiced English b is the standard error and it makes the word heavier than any Korean speaker would say it. The other slip is releasing the final m into a small vowel -- 'bam-uh' -- when the lips should close and the sound should simply stop there.