LingoDrop
Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "학교" in Korean?
hak-kkyo. The unreleased ㄱ of 학 tenses the ㄱ of 교, so the middle of the word is a hard, throat-tight consonant.
hakgyo
Two blocks with a silent closure between them. Post-obstruent tensing is doing the work, and it is completely invisible in the spelling -- the romanization writes hakgyo and the mouth says hak-kkyo.
Listen: 학교
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
자전거로 학교에 가요.
Jajeongeoro hakgyoe gayo.
I go to school by bike.
Listen: 자전거로 학교에 가요.
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자전거로 학교에 가요 attaches 에, and the tensed ㄱ resyllabifies forward, so the noun becomes hak-kkyo-e. The tension survives the shift, which is a useful reminder that a tensed consonant is not merely a by-product of the closure before it.
Where English speakers slip
Saying 'hak-gyo' with a soft g misses the tensing and makes the word sound slack, so squeeze the throat. The other habit is releasing the ㄱ of 학 with an audible burst, when Korean wants that closure held silently until the tensed consonant arrives.