Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "처음" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 처음 in Korean?

처음 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɕʰʌ.ɯm/. It means “the first time / at first.” cheo-eum. Two unrounded vowels meet with nothing between them -- ㅓ then ㅡ -- and the ㅊ at the front needs a real puff.

cheo-eum. Two unrounded vowels meet with nothing between them -- ㅓ then ㅡ -- and the ㅊ at the front needs a real puff.

처음 /tɕʰʌ.ɯm/

cheoeum

What varies here is not loudness but the transition: two unrounded vowels in a row, differing mainly in tongue height, with no consonant to mark the boundary. Korean keeps the voice running straight through the join.

Listen: 처음

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Sound it out

cheo Aspirated ㅊ with audible breath, onto the back, unrounded ㅓ.

eum The lip-flat ㅡ arriving directly after the previous vowel, closed by a lip-shut ㅁ. The tongue rises while the lips stay spread until the very end.

Hear it in a sentence

오늘 처음 만났어요.

Oneul cheoeum mannasseoyo.

We met for the first time today.

Listen: 오늘 처음 만났어요.

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오늘 처음 만났어요 puts 처음 between an adverb and a verb, and 만났어요 gives you a geminate n followed by a resyllabified double s: man-na-sseo-yo. The soft vowel run of 처음 sits between two far more consonantal words.

Where English speakers slip

Merging the two vowels into one long sound is the commonest outcome, and inserting a glottal stop between them is the other, and neither is Korean. Keep them distinct and connected. The ㅊ also needs its aspiration, since softening it gives 저음, a different word altogether.