Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "병원" in Korean?

byeong-won. Both vowels are the unrounded ㅓ under glides, and the nasal in the middle carries straight into the w.

병원 /pjʌŋ.wʌn/

byeongwon

Two beats, both of them glide-plus-vowel units. The word is a workout in keeping ㅓ unrounded even when a glide precedes it, since both a y and a w pull English speakers toward a rounder vowel.

Listen: 병원

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

Sound it out

byeong Plain ㅂ, quiet at the start of a word, then a y-glide onto the flat ㅓ, closed by a nasal ㅇ.

won A w-glide onto the same unrounded ㅓ, closed with a tongue-tip n. The nasal before it flows in without a break.

Hear it in a sentence

병원에 가야 해요.

Byeongwone gaya haeyo.

I have to go to the hospital.

Listen: 병원에 가야 해요.

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

병원에 가야 해요 attaches 에, so the closing ㄴ moves forward and the noun becomes byeong-wo-ne. Then 가야 해요 runs vowel into vowel with the ㅎ weakening between voiced sounds.

Where English speakers slip

Round the vowel and it after the w is almost irresistible, and it produces an English 'won' rather than a Korean one -- the lips must round for the glide and then immediately spread. Releasing a g after 병 is the other habit, and it inserts a stop into a word that contains none.