Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "일어나다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 일어나다 in Korean?

일어나다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /i.ɾʌ.na.da/. It means “to get up / to stand up.” i-reo-na-da. The ㄹ of 일 taps forward into the vowel, so the written 일-어 comes out as i-reo with no l audible at all.

i-reo-na-da. The ㄹ of 일 taps forward into the vowel, so the written 일-어 comes out as i-reo with no l audible at all.

일어나다 /i.ɾʌ.na.da/

ireonada

A flat four-beat rhythm. The word is built from two verbs fused together, and the seam is invisible in speech -- there is no pause and no lengthening where the halves meet, which is typical of Korean compound verbs.

Listen: 일어나다

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Sound it out

i A bare, tight 'ee' opening the word with nothing in front of it.

reo The migrated ㄹ as a quick tap, carrying the unrounded ㅓ. What was a lateral has become a flap purely because a vowel followed.

na A tongue-tip n onto an open ㅏ, both kept short.

da The dictionary tail, voiced and brief, dropped the instant the verb conjugates.

Hear it in a sentence

여섯 시에 일어나요.

Yeoseot sie ireonayo.

I get up at six.

Listen: 여섯 시에 일어나요.

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여섯 시에 일어나요 puts the verb after a time expression, and 여섯 시 tenses its ㅅ into ㅆ after the unreleased t, giving yeo-seot-ssi. Then the verb resyllabifies, so the sentence moves from a hard tensed consonant straight into a run of flowing vowels and taps.

Where English speakers slip

Saying 'il-eo-na-da' with a held l and a fresh vowel start is the beginner's version, and it inserts a break Korean does not have. Stress is the other issue: four syllables is long enough that English speakers pick one to lean on, usually the second, and once they do the remaining vowels start collapsing toward schwa.