Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "검은색" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 검은색 in Korean?

검은색 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kʌ.mɯn.sɛk̚/. It means “black (color).” geo-meun-saek. The ㅁ ending 검 slides forward into 은, and the vowel in the middle is ㅡ, a sound English simply does not possess.

geo-meun-saek. The ㅁ ending 검 slides forward into 은, and the vowel in the middle is ㅡ, a sound English simply does not possess.

검은색 /kʌ.mɯn.sɛk̚/

geomeunsaek

Three even beats. The timing quirk is the resyllabification at 검+은, which erases the syllable boundary you see on the page: three blocks are written and three syllables are spoken, but they are cut in different places.

Listen: 검은색

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Sound it out

geo Light ㄱ and the unrounded ㅓ. Lips relaxed, tongue back -- the vowel of 'cut' shifted rearwards in the mouth.

meun The m here is on loan from the previous block. ㅡ is high and back with completely spread lips: not 'oo', not 'uh', but closer to the vowel you make while grimacing.

saek Plain ㅅ this time, since the batchim before it is a nasal rather than a stop, plus the flat ㅐ and an unreleased k.

Hear it in a sentence

저는 검은색 가방을 샀어요.

Jeoneun geomeunsaek gabangeul sasseoyo.

I bought a black bag.

Listen: 저는 검은색 가방을 샀어요.

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

저는 검은색 가방을 샀어요 places 검은색 before 가방, and the unreleased k of 색 tenses the ㄱ of 가 to ㄲ -- geo-meun-saek-kka-bang. Meanwhile 가방을 links its ㅇ into the particle, so the whole phrase runs with no internal silence except that one stop closure.

Where English speakers slip

ㅡ is the hardest Korean vowel for English speakers, and the usual substitutes are 'oo', which rounds the lips, or 'uh', which drops the tongue. Neither works: keep the tongue high and the lips spread, as if saying 'ee' with the tongue pulled straight back. Get it wrong and the middle syllable turns into 문 or 만, neither of which belongs in this word.