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Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "단어" in Korean?
da-neo. The ㄴ ending 단 moves forward into the vowel-initial 어, so the two written blocks are re-cut in speech.
daneo
Two beats after resyllabification, though the writing divides them differently. The word is a clean example of how Korean spelling preserves the morphology while the pronunciation follows syllable structure instead.
Listen: 단어
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
이 단어를 모르겠어요.
I daneoreul moreugesseoyo.
I don't know this word.
Listen: 이 단어를 모르겠어요.
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이 단어를 모르겠어요 attaches the object particle to a vowel-final noun, so nothing further shifts, and 모르겠어요 supplies the interest: the ㅆ of 겠 neutralizes and tenses the following ㅅ, giving ge-sseo-yo.
Where English speakers slip
Pronouncing the blocks separately -- 'dan-eo' with a break and a fresh vowel onset -- sounds stilted, because Korean links the ㄴ across. The second vowel is the other point, since rounding it gives 'da-no' and loses the flat, back quality ㅓ needs.