Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "둘" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 둘 in Korean?

둘 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tul/. It means “two.” dool, but with a first consonant sitting between English d and t, and a bright forward l at the end.

dool, but with a first consonant sitting between English d and t, and a bright forward l at the end.

둘 /tul/

dul

One syllable. Since 둘 is a native numeral, note the shape change it undergoes before counters, where it becomes 두 and loses the ㄹ entirely -- so the l you practise here vanishes the moment you count objects with it.

Listen: 둘

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Sound it out

du Word-initial ㄷ is plain: the vocal cords do not start buzzing until the vowel does, so to an English ear it lands closer to t than to d. No puff of air either.

l Clear final ㄹ with the tongue tip up and the tongue back flat. Do not let it darken into the l of 'pull'.

Hear it in a sentence

저는 동생이 둘 있어요.

Jeoneun dongsaengi dul isseoyo.

I have two younger siblings.

Listen: 저는 동생이 둘 있어요.

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저는 동생이 둘 있어요 places 둘 immediately before 있어요, and in connected speech the final ㄹ links smoothly into the vowel-initial syllable that follows, giving something like du-ri-sseo-yo. That linking works on exactly the same principle as English 'far away' becoming 'fa-raway'.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers voice the ㄷ fully, producing a buzzy 'dool' that a Korean ear registers as off -- and if they overcorrect with a puff of air they land on 툴 with an aspirated ㅌ instead. The plain consonant is neither: no buzz, no breath. The final l should also stay light and forward rather than becoming the swallowed dark l of English 'tool'.