LingoDrop
Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "봄" in Korean?
bom. One syllable framed by two lip closures: a plain ㅂ at the front and a nasal ㅁ at the end, with a rounded ㅗ between them.
bom
One beat. Both consonants are made at the lips and the vowel is rounded, so the lips are busy from start to finish, and the whole syllable can be produced without the tongue doing anything at all.
Listen: 봄
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
봄에는 꽃이 피어요.
Bomeneun kkochi pieoyo.
In spring the flowers bloom.
Listen: 봄에는 꽃이 피어요.
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봄에는 꽃이 피어요 attaches particles, so the ㅁ moves forward and the noun becomes bo-me-neun. Then 꽃이 releases its buried ㅊ, which resyllabifies and comes out aspirated: kko-chi.
Where English speakers slip
A heavy English b is the first overshoot, since word-initial ㅂ is much quieter than that. The other error is releasing the final ㅁ into a small vowel, which turns a one-syllable word into 'bo-muh' -- the lips close and the word ends there.