LingoDrop
Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "책" in Korean?
chaek. An aspirated ㅊ with a real puff, the flat ㅐ vowel, and a ㄱ that closes without releasing.
chaek
One clipped beat. The stop closure at the end shortens the syllable noticeably, which is why the word sounds abrupt next to a nasal-final noun like 돈 or 문.
Listen: 책
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
저는 재미있는 책을 읽어요.
Jeoneun jaemiinneun chaegeul ilgeoyo.
I'm reading an interesting book.
Listen: 저는 재미있는 책을 읽어요.
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저는 재미있는 책을 읽어요 attaches 을 to 책, so the trapped ㄱ moves forward and voices, giving chae-geul. The modifier 재미있는 in front nasalizes its own batchim, coming out jae-mi-in-neun rather than 'jae-mi-it-neun'.
Where English speakers slip
Reading 'ae' as an English long a gives 'chake', which stretches the vowel and adds a glide it does not have. Then there is the ending: releasing the k with an English burst, or adding a small vowel after it, both turn a one-syllable word into something longer.