Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "은행" in Korean?

eun-haeng. The ㅡ opens the word with the lips flat, and the ㅎ weakens between the nasal and the vowel.

은행 /ɯn.ɦɛŋ/

eunhaeng

Nothing here takes an accent. The variable is the h, fully audible in careful speech and nearly gone in casual speech, and both versions are ordinary Korean rather than one being a sloppy version of the other.

Listen: 은행

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Sound it out

eun ㅡ standing alone with the lips spread and the tongue high and back, closed by a tongue-tip n.

haeng A lenited ㅎ over the flat ㅐ, closed by a nasal ㅇ. At speed the h can thin almost to nothing, so the word approaches eu-naeng.

Hear it in a sentence

은행 앞에서 기다릴게요.

Eunhaeng apeseo gidarilgeyo.

I'll wait in front of the bank.

Listen: 은행 앞에서 기다릴게요.

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은행 앞에서 기다릴게요 puts 앞에서 next, where the buried ㅍ resyllabifies and recovers its aspiration, giving a-pe-seo. Then 기다릴게요 tenses its ㄱ into ㄲ after the ㄹ.

Where English speakers slip

Letting the ㅡ round into 'oon' is the recurring vowel error, so spread the lips. Then there is the h: a full English one makes the word sound over-articulated, when between a nasal and a vowel it should barely register. Releasing a g at the end completes the set of three.