Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "으로" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 으로 in Korean?

으로 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɯ.ɾo/. It means “by / with (means); to (direction).” eu-ro. The first vowel is the lip-spread ㅡ and the second block carries a tapped r; after a vowel or a ㄹ the whole particle shortens to just 로.

eu-ro. The first vowel is the lip-spread ㅡ and the second block carries a tapped r; after a vowel or a ㄹ the whole particle shortens to just 로.

으로 /ɯ.ɾo/

euro

Two unstressed beats, or one when the noun ends in a vowel and the particle reduces to 로. That alternation is the practical timing issue: the same grammatical marker is sometimes a syllable longer than at other times, and choosing the wrong length is what makes a phrase sound bumpy.

Listen: 으로

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Sound it out

eu ㅡ with the lips flat and the tongue high and back. It is a full vowel here, not a helper sound, even though it disappears entirely after vowel-final nouns.

ro Tapped ㄹ onto a rounded 'oh'. One flick of the tongue tip, and then the lips push forward for the vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

이것으로 주세요.

Igeoseuro juseyo.

I'll take this one, please.

Listen: 이것으로 주세요.

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이것으로 주세요 attaches the full 으로 to the consonant-final 이것, and the ㅅ batchim of 것 -- silent on its own -- resyllabifies and returns as a real s: i-geo-seu-ro. That is one of the clearest demonstrations in the language of a hidden final consonant surfacing.

Where English speakers slip

Rounding ㅡ into 'oo' gives 우로, and the mistake is nearly universal because English has nothing to map this vowel onto. Spread the lips deliberately. The second error is the r: a curled American r drags the syllable out, when Korean wants a single quick tap that is over before you notice it.