LingoDrop
Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "도시" in Korean?
do-shi. The ㅅ palatalizes in front of ㅣ, so the second syllable is 'shi' and never 'si'.
dosi
Two unaccented syllables. The vowels move from rounded to spread across the seam and the consonant changes character at the same moment, so the lips and the tongue are both busy between the syllables.
Listen: 도시
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
서울은 아주 큰 도시예요.
Seoureun aju keun dosiyeyo.
Seoul is a very big city.
Listen: 서울은 아주 큰 도시예요.
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서울은 아주 큰 도시예요 puts 큰 in front, which opens with an aspirated ㅋ over the lip-flat ㅡ -- one of the harder syllables in the language -- and then the noun arrives with its palatalized s.
Where English speakers slip
'do-see' with a plain s is the recurring miss, and it is the same rule that governs 시간, 점심 and 마시다. The other slip is a full English d at the front, when word-initial ㄷ is quiet enough that many learners initially hear it as a t.