Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "그것" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 그것 in Korean?

그것 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kɯ.gʌt̚/. It means “that (thing).” geu-geot. Two ㄱ sounds doing different jobs: the first is light and word-initial, the second is fully voiced between vowels.

geu-geot. Two ㄱ sounds doing different jobs: the first is light and word-initial, the second is fully voiced between vowels.

그것 /kɯ.gʌt̚/

geugeot

One beat and then a clipped one, the second clipped. The word is useful for hearing how much a Korean consonant's realization depends on position rather than identity -- one letter, two audibly different sounds, inside a single two-syllable word.

Listen: 그것

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Sound it out

geu Light ㄱ plus the flat, unrounded ㅡ. There is no lip movement in this syllable whatsoever.

geo The same letter, but between vowels, so it voices properly into a g. The vowel is the unrounded ㅓ.

t Neutralized ㅅ batchim, closing as an unreleased [t̚] with no hiss and nothing released.

Hear it in a sentence

그것은 제 자리예요.

Geugeoseun je jariyeyo.

That is my seat.

Listen: 그것은 제 자리예요.

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

그것은 제 자리예요 attaches 은 and unlocks the hidden ㅅ, giving geu-geo-seun with a clear s. The pattern matches 이것은 exactly, which makes the pair a good drill for the neutralization-and-return rule.

Where English speakers slip

The two vowels get confused constantly: ㅡ in the first syllable and ㅓ in the second are both unrounded, but ㅡ is high and ㅓ is low, and collapsing them into one schwa turns the word into mush. Keep the tongue high for the first, drop it for the second, and let neither of them round.