Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "이것" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 이것 in Korean?

이것 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /i.gʌt̚/. It means “this (thing).” i-geot. The ㄱ voices between vowels into a genuine g, and the final ㅅ is not an s at all -- it stops the word as an unreleased t.

i-geot. The ㄱ voices between vowels into a genuine g, and the final ㅅ is not an s at all -- it stops the word as an unreleased t.

이것 /i.gʌt̚/

igeot

A pair of blocks, the second clipped by its stop. What is worth tracking is the fate of that ㅅ, because the moment a vowel-initial particle attaches it stops being a silent t and returns as a full s.

Listen: 이것

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Sound it out

i A tight, pure 'ee' with no glide off the end of it.

geo Plain ㄱ, voiced here because vowels sit on both sides, plus the unrounded ㅓ with slack lips.

t The written ㅅ neutralizes to an unreleased [t̚]. Tongue up, air stopped, no hiss and no burst afterwards.

Hear it in a sentence

이것은 제 가방이에요.

Igeoseun je gabangieyo.

This is my bag.

Listen: 이것은 제 가방이에요.

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

이것은 제 가방이에요 does exactly that: 이것 plus 은 gives i-geo-seun, with the hidden ㅅ audible again. Say the bare word and the particled form back to back and the neutralization rule becomes obvious in a way no chart makes it.

Where English speakers slip

Two habits get in the way. Learners release the final t with an English burst, sometimes trailing a schwa after it, when Korean simply closes and stops. And they harden the middle ㄱ into a k, when it sits between vowels and genuinely voices -- 'ee-KUHT' sounds clipped and wrong where i-geot should flow.