Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "가족" in Korean?

ga-jok. A light plain ㄱ, a ㅈ that voices between vowels, and a final ㄱ that closes without releasing.

가족 /ka.dʑok̚/

gajok

Two blocks, the second clipped. The same letter ㄱ appears at both ends doing entirely different jobs -- a light onset at the front and a silent closure at the back -- which is a neat summary of how position governs sound in this language.

Listen: 가족

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

ga Word-initial ㄱ, soft enough that English ears often hear a k, over a wide open ㅏ.

jok The plain ㅈ, voiced between vowels, a rounded ㅗ, and an unreleased ㄱ. The word ends in silence.

Hear it in a sentence

제 가족을 사랑해요.

Je gajogeul saranghaeyo.

I love my family.

Listen: 제 가족을 사랑해요.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

제 가족을 사랑해요 attaches 을, so the final ㄱ resyllabifies forward and voices into a real g, giving ga-jo-geul. The silent consonant of the bare noun becomes an ordinary voiced one the moment a vowel follows it.

Where English speakers slip

Releasing that final k is the recurring stop-batchim error, and it is especially audible before a pause. Learners also aspirate the middle ㅈ into 'ga-chok', when between vowels the plain series voices and it should be as soft as the j in 'major'.