Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "동안" in Korean?

dong-an. The nasal ㅇ of 동 runs straight into the bare vowel of 안, so the two blocks are welded together by resonance.

동안 /toŋ.an/

dongan

Two blocks with three nasal sounds between them, which gives the word a distinctly humming quality. Nothing is stressed, but the held ㅇ makes the first block a shade longer than the second.

Listen: 동안

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Sound it out

dong Plain ㄷ at the front, quiet, a rounded ㅗ, and a final ㅇ held as pure nasal.

an A bare open ㅏ with the nasal flowing into it, closed by a tongue-tip n. The word ends on a different nasal from the one in its middle.

Hear it in a sentence

한 시간 동안 기다렸어요.

Han sigan dongan gidaryeosseoyo.

I waited for an hour.

Listen: 한 시간 동안 기다렸어요.

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한 시간 동안 기다렸어요 puts 동안 after a duration phrase, and the sentence is unusually nasal throughout -- 한, 간, 동 and 안 all close on a nasal, so four of its seven syllables end in resonance rather than in a stop.

Where English speakers slip

The English 'finger' reflex strikes again, with learners releasing a g between 동 and 안 to give 'dong-gan', when Korean's ㅇ does not release. The other correction is the initial ㄷ, which is plain and quiet at the start of a word rather than the full English d.