Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "재미있다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 재미있다 in Korean?

재미있다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɕɛ.mi.it̚.t͈a/. It means “to be fun / to be interesting.” jae-mi-it-tta. Four blocks, and the last two behave exactly as 있다 does on its own: a silent t and then a tensed ㄸ.

jae-mi-it-tta. Four blocks, and the last two behave exactly as 있다 does on its own: a silent t and then a tensed ㄸ.

재미있다 /tɕɛ.mi.it̚.t͈a/

jaemiitda

Four beats, the third clipped by its closure. The word is 재미 plus 있다, and the compound seam is invisible: the two halves run together with no pause and no lengthening.

Listen: 재미있다

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Sound it out

jae ㅈ released gently, with no air, over the flat ㅐ. Short vowel, and no glide.

mi The bilabial nasal onto a tight 'ee'.

it The ㅆ of 있 neutralized to an unreleased [t̚] -- no hiss survives in final position.

da The tensed ㄸ, demanded by that closure.

Hear it in a sentence

이 영화가 정말 재미있어요.

I yeonghwaga jeongmal jaemiisseoyo.

This movie is really fun.

Listen: 이 영화가 정말 재미있어요.

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

이 영화가 정말 재미있어요 releases the trapped ㅆ, which resyllabifies into the ending as a full double s: jae-mi-i-sseo-yo. Set that against the silent t of the dictionary form and you have the whole neutralization rule inside one word.

Where English speakers slip

The temptation is to pronounce the ㅆ in the citation form, giving 'jae-mi-iss-da', when it is a silent stop. Then the ending needs tensing rather than a soft d. And with four syllables, English rhythm wants to stress one of them -- keep all four the same length.