Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "들어가다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 들어가다 in Korean?

들어가다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɯ.ɾʌ.ga.da/. It means “to enter / to go in.” deu-reo-ga-da. The ㄹ of 들 moves into the following vowel and becomes a tap, so the written 들-어 is spoken as deu-reo.

deu-reo-ga-da. The ㄹ of 들 moves into the following vowel and becomes a tap, so the written 들-어 is spoken as deu-reo.

들어가다 /tɯ.ɾʌ.ga.da/

deureogada

Four blocks of the same length. Two of the first three vowels are unrounded and different from each other -- ㅡ then ㅓ -- so the opening of this word is a small workout in keeping two lip-flat vowels apart.

Listen: 들어가다

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Sound it out

deu Plain ㄷ over the flat ㅡ, with the lips kept completely unrounded.

reo The migrated ㄹ, now a quick tap between vowels, carrying the unrounded ㅓ.

ga ㄱ voiced between vowels into a genuine g, onto a wide 'ah'.

da Soft and unaccented, and the first thing to go when the verb takes an ending.

Hear it in a sentence

들어가도 돼요?

Deureogado dwaeyo?

May I come in?

Listen: 들어가도 돼요?

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들어가도 돼요? attaches a permission ending and keeps the same resyllabification, giving deu-reo-ga-do dwae-yo. That final 돼요 compresses a w-glide and a vowel into a single beat, so a long four-syllable verb gets answered by a very short two-syllable one.

Where English speakers slip

Saying 'deul-eo-ga-da' with a held l and a fresh vowel start breaks the word in half and sounds laboured. The ㄹ has to tap across. Rounding the first vowel into 'doo' is the second problem, and it is the same ㅡ error that turns up in every word containing that vowel.