LingoDrop
Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "친구" in Korean?
chin-gu. An aspirated ㅊ with a real puff at the front, and a ㄱ that voices after the nasal into a genuine g.
chingu
Uniform timing across the pair. The word pairs an aspirated consonant with a plain one, so it is a compact place to hear the contrast English collapses -- a strong puff at the front, none at all in the middle.
Listen: 친구
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
제일 친한 친구예요.
Jeil chinhan chinguyeyo.
He's my best friend.
Listen: 제일 친한 친구예요.
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제일 친한 친구예요 uses 친 twice, once in 친한 and once in 친구, so the aspirated ㅊ turns up in adjacent words. Meanwhile 친한 lenites its ㅎ between voiced sounds, which makes the two words sound less alike than they look on the page.
Where English speakers slip
Under-aspirating the ㅊ pulls the word toward 진구 and away from anything meaningful, so push the air. Then avoid over-correcting on the ㄱ: after a nasal it voices, and a hard aspirated 'chin-koo' turns a soft second syllable into a harsh one.