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Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "버스" in Korean?
beo-seu. Another loanword that gains a syllable: English 'bus' ends in a consonant, and Korean adds ㅡ to make it a legal one.
beoseu
Two beats of equal weight, which is exactly what English speakers resist: 'bus' is one syllable with a strong vowel, and the Korean version is two syllables with neither of them stressed.
Listen: 버스
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
저는 매일 버스를 타요.
Jeoneun maeil beoseureul tayo.
I take the bus every day.
Listen: 저는 매일 버스를 타요.
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저는 매일 버스를 타요 attaches the object particle to a vowel-final noun, so nothing shifts, and 타요 opens with an aspirated ㅌ. The loanword itself has no consonant changes in it at all.
Where English speakers slip
Both vowels get distorted by the English source word, with the first becoming the vowel of 'bus' and the second getting swallowed. Korean wants a flat, back ㅓ and then a full ㅡ, with both syllables the same length -- rounding either is the quickest way to make the word unrecognizable.