Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "듣다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 듣다 in Korean?

듣다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɯt̚.t͈a/. It means “to listen / to hear.” deut-tta. The vowel is the lip-spread ㅡ, the ㄷ batchim closes unreleased, and the final ㄷ tenses into ㄸ.

deut-tta. The vowel is the lip-spread ㅡ, the ㄷ batchim closes unreleased, and the final ㄷ tenses into ㄸ.

듣다 /tɯt̚.t͈a/

deutda

A pair of syllables and a held closure. This is a ㄷ-irregular verb, which matters for pronunciation as much as for grammar: in front of a vowel ending, the stem consonant becomes ㄹ, so 듣다 turns into 들어요 and the whole shape of the word changes.

Listen: 듣다

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Sound it out

deu Plain ㄷ at the front, so barely voiced, over the unrounded ㅡ. Lips stay flat throughout.

t Unreleased ㄷ batchim. The tongue reaches the ridge and holds there; nothing is released before the next syllable.

da Tensed ㄸ. Two ㄷ letters sit in a row on the page and neither of them comes out as an ordinary d.

Hear it in a sentence

라디오를 들어요.

Radioreul deureoyo.

I listen to the radio.

Listen: 라디오를 들어요.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

라디오를 들어요 shows that irregularity working -- the stem ㄷ has become ㄹ and then resyllabified into the vowel, so what you actually hear is deu-reo-yo, with a tap where a stop used to be. Nothing in the dictionary form predicts that r.

Where English speakers slip

The vowel is the first problem: 'doot-da' with rounded lips is wrong, because ㅡ needs the lips flat and the tongue high and back. The second is releasing the middle t and softening the final one, producing 'deut-duh' -- Korean wants silence in the middle and a tight, throat-squeezed ㄸ at the end.