Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "별" in Korean?

byeol. One syllable: a quiet ㅂ, a y-glide onto the unrounded ㅓ, and a bright forward l.

별 /pjʌl/

byeol

One beat. Four sounds are packed into it, which is common in Korean and rare in English, and the whole thing should take no longer than a simple syllable like 밤 or 손.

Listen: 별

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Sound it out

byeo ㅂ at the start of a word, barely voiced, running into a y-glide and the flat ㅓ. The lips close for the consonant and then stay slack.

l Final ㄹ as a clear lateral, tongue tip at the ridge and the tongue back low.

Hear it in a sentence

오늘 밤에 별이 많아요.

Oneul bame byeori manayo.

There are a lot of stars tonight.

Listen: 오늘 밤에 별이 많아요.

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오늘 밤에 별이 많아요 attaches the subject particle, so the ㄹ taps forward and the noun becomes byeo-ri. Then 많아요 deletes its ㅎ and resyllabifies the ㄴ, giving ma-na-yo.

Where English speakers slip

Splitting the word into 'bee-yol' doubles its length and rounds the vowel on the way, so keep it compressed and keep the lips flat. The dark l is the other habit, and in a syllable this dense it makes the whole thing sound muddy.