Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "돈" in Korean?

don. A plain ㄷ with almost no voicing, a rounded ㅗ, and a tongue-tip n.

돈 /ton/

don

One beat. Because the final consonant is a nasal, the syllable is not clipped the way a stop-final word would be, and it can be held slightly longer without sounding wrong.

Listen: 돈

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Sound it out

do Word-initial ㄷ, quiet and unaspirated, so English ears often hear it as closer to t. Then a properly rounded ㅗ.

n Final ㄴ made with the tongue tip near the teeth, and it does not nasalize the vowel in front of it.

Hear it in a sentence

돈이 충분하지 않아요.

Doni chungbunhaji anayo.

I don't have enough money.

Listen: 돈이 충분하지 않아요.

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돈이 충분하지 않아요 attaches the subject particle, so the ㄴ moves into it and the noun becomes do-ni. Then 않아요 deletes its ㅎ between vowels and resyllabifies, giving a-na-yo.

Where English speakers slip

A full English d is the first overshoot, and under-rounding the vowel is the second: 'dun' with a flat vowel drifts toward 던, a grammatical ending rather than a noun. Push the lips forward and keep the consonant quiet.