LingoDrop
Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "혼자" in Korean?
hon-ja. A light ㅎ, a rounded ㅗ closed by a forward n, and a plain ㅈ that voices after the nasal.
honja
No accent on either syllable. The vowels move from rounded to open across the seam, which is a bigger jaw movement than most two-syllable Korean words ask for, and keeping both fully formed is the main task.
Listen: 혼자
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
저는 혼자 왔어요.
Jeoneun honja wasseoyo.
I came alone.
Listen: 저는 혼자 왔어요.
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저는 혼자 왔어요 puts the adverb before the verb, and 왔어요 resyllabifies its ㅆ forward into the vowel, giving wa-sseo-yo with a full double s. The adverb itself has no clusters, so the tension arrives only at the end.
Where English speakers slip
Over-blowing the ㅎ is the first slip, since English pushes more air through h than Korean does. The second is aspirating the ㅈ into 'hon-cha', when after a nasal the plain series voices and this consonant should be as soft as the j in 'ajar'.