LingoDrop
Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "작년" in Korean?
jang-nyeon. Written with a ㄱ, but a stop cannot stand in front of a nasal, so it becomes ng -- which is why the romanization has no k in it.
jangnyeon
Two blocks and three nasal sounds. The event to name is obstruent nasalization: a ㄱ, ㄷ or ㅂ batchim in front of ㄴ or ㅁ turns into the matching nasal, and this word is the cleanest example of it in the course.
Listen: 작년
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
작년에 제주도에 갔어요.
Jangnyeone Jejudoe gasseoyo.
I went to Jeju last year.
Listen: 작년에 제주도에 갔어요.
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
작년에 제주도에 갔어요 keeps the nasalization even with a particle attached, because the change happened inside the word: 작년에 is jang-nyeo-ne, with the ㄴ of 년 moving forward into 에 and the ng staying exactly where it is. The ㄱ never returns.
Where English speakers slip
Reading the letters gives 'jak-nyeon' with a stop in the middle, which Korean does not permit in front of a nasal -- the ㄱ becomes ng, without exception. Learners then also release a g after that ng, reinstating the very consonant the rule removed, when the middle of the word should be pure nasal throughout.