Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "그런데" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 그런데 in Korean?

그런데 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kɯ.ɾʌn.de/. It means “but / however.” geu-reon-de. Another three-vowel connector, this time ㅡ, ㅓ and ㅔ, with a ㄷ that voices after the nasal.

geu-reon-de. Another three-vowel connector, this time ㅡ, ㅓ and ㅔ, with a ㄷ that voices after the nasal.

그런데 /kɯ.ɾʌn.de/

geureonde

Three blocks, evenly timed. Like the other 그- connectors it starts a new intonational phrase, so pitch resets on the first syllable and then drifts, while the word itself stays completely flat.

Listen: 그런데

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Sound it out

geu Light ㄱ over the lip-flat ㅡ, the same opening as 그리고 and 그래서.

reon One quick tap into the unrounded ㅓ, closed with a tongue-tip n.

de Plain ㄷ voiced by the nasal in front of it, onto the pure ㅔ of 'bet'.

Hear it in a sentence

좋아요. 그런데 좀 비싸요.

Joayo. Geureonde jom bissayo.

I like it, but it's a bit expensive.

Listen: 좋아요. 그런데 좀 비싸요.

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

좋아요. 그런데 좀 비싸요. shows the connector doing its work, and 비싸요 delivers a tensed ㅆ that stays hard between vowels. The preceding 좋아요 deletes its ㅎ, so the pair moves from a missing consonant to a doubled one.

Where English speakers slip

The 그- family all begin with the same difficult vowel and learners round every one of them, giving 'goo-reon-de'. Fix it once and it fixes 그리고, 그래서 and 그것 as well. The final ㅔ is the other point: no off-glide, so 'geu-reon-day' with an English long a is wrong.