Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "이렇게" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 이렇게 in Korean?

이렇게 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /i.ɾʌ.kʰe/. It means “like this.” i-reo-ke. The ㅎ batchim of 렇 never surfaces as an h -- it fuses with the ㄱ into a single aspirated ㅋ.

i-reo-ke. The ㅎ batchim of 렇 never surfaces as an h -- it fuses with the ㄱ into a single aspirated ㅋ.

이렇게 /i.ɾʌ.kʰe/

ireoke

Three syllables, evenly timed, and the aspirate at the end is the only strong sound. Compare it with 어떻게, which uses the identical ㅎ-plus-ㄱ merger -- the two words share a mechanism and belong in the same drill.

Listen: 이렇게

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

Sound it out

i A bare tight 'ee' opening the word, with no consonant in front of it.

reo A single flick of the tongue tip, then the unrounded ㅓ. One flick of the tongue and it is gone.

ke The ㅎ and the following ㄱ merge into one aspirated ㅋ with a real puff, over the pure ㅔ of 'bet'.

Hear it in a sentence

이렇게 하면 돼요.

Ireoke hamyeon dwaeyo.

You can do it like this.

Listen: 이렇게 하면 돼요.

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

이렇게 하면 돼요 follows with 하면, whose ㅎ stays audible because it opens a syllable rather than closing one. The sentence therefore contains a ㅎ that is spent on aspiration and a ㅎ that is pronounced as itself, a few beats apart.

Where English speakers slip

Saying 'i-reo-heu-ge' or 'i-reot-ge' both miss what the ㅎ does, which is to hand its breath to the next consonant and vanish -- there is one aspirated k there. Learners also use an English r for the tap, which turns a light three-beat word into something noticeably heavier.