Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "찾다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 찾다 in Korean?

찾다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɕʰat̚.t͈a/. It means “to find / to look for.” chat-tta. The ㅊ needs a real puff, the ㅈ batchim collapses into an unreleased t, and that stop then tenses the ㄷ into ㄸ.

chat-tta. The ㅊ needs a real puff, the ㅈ batchim collapses into an unreleased t, and that stop then tenses the ㄷ into ㄸ.

찾다 /tɕʰat̚.t͈a/

chatda

Two beats with a silence wedged between them. Three separate processes fire inside one two-syllable word -- aspiration at the front, batchim neutralization in the middle, tensing at the back -- which makes it a compact summary of Korean consonant phonology.

Listen: 찾다

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Sound it out

cha Aspirated ㅊ with breath you can feel on your hand, running onto a wide open 'ah'.

t The written ㅈ cannot survive as an affricate at the end of a syllable, so it neutralizes to an unreleased [t̚], exactly as ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅌ and ㅎ do.

da Tensed ㄸ triggered by the stop in front of it: no air, tight throat, clipped release.

Hear it in a sentence

열쇠를 못 찾겠어요.

Yeolsoereul mot chatgesseoyo.

I can't find the keys.

Listen: 열쇠를 못 찾겠어요.

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열쇠를 못 찾겠어요 stacks two of these. The unreleased t of 못 runs straight into the aspirated ㅊ of 찾, so the closures merge into one held stop released with a puff, and then the neutralized ㅈ of 찾 tenses the ㄱ of 겠: chat-kke-sseo-yo.

Where English speakers slip

The instinct is to pronounce the ㅈ, giving 'chaj-da' with an audible affricate closing the first syllable. Korean never permits that in final position. Learners also under-aspirate the opening ㅊ and soften the ㄸ, which flattens a word built almost entirely on consonant contrasts into a bland 'chad-da'.