LingoDrop
Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "화장실" in Korean?
hwa-jang-shil. A w-glide after the h, a held nasal in the middle, and a palatalized s at the end.
hwajangsil
Three beats, evenly weighted. The word moves through three different articulatory zones -- lips, palate, tongue tip -- which gives it a sense of travel that has nothing to do with accent.
Listen: 화장실
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
화장실이 어디에 있어요?
Hwajangsiri eodie isseoyo?
Where is the bathroom?
Listen: 화장실이 어디에 있어요?
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화장실이 어디에 있어요? attaches the subject particle, so the final ㄹ taps forward and the noun becomes hwa-jang-shi-ri. The question then runs through 어디에 with three vowels in a row before 있어요 supplies its double s.
Where English speakers slip
The last block gets a plain s from most learners, which misses the palatalization rule -- it is 'shil'. Releasing a g after 장 is the second habit, and the third is splitting 화 into 'hoo-a', when the h, the glide and the vowel all belong to one beat.