Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "전화하다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 전화하다 in Korean?

전화하다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɕʌn.ɦwa.ha.da/. It means “to call (on the phone).” jeon-hwa-ha-da. Both ㅎ sounds sit between voiced neighbours and weaken, so fast speech tends toward jeo-nwa-ha-da.

jeon-hwa-ha-da. Both ㅎ sounds sit between voiced neighbours and weaken, so fast speech tends toward jeo-nwa-ha-da.

전화하다 /tɕʌn.ɦwa.ha.da/

jeonhwahada

Uniform timing from start to finish. The pronunciation genuinely varies with speed here: careful speech keeps both h sounds audible, casual speech reduces them until the ㄴ links straight into the w-glide, and neither version is incorrect.

Listen: 전화하다

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Sound it out

jeon Plain ㅈ over the unrounded ㅓ, closed off with a forward n.

hwa ㅎ plus a w-glide onto ㅏ. Trapped between the n and the vowel, this h thins out and can nearly disappear.

ha The second ㅎ, weakened the same way, onto an open 'ah'.

da Softly voiced and unstressed, ending a word whose interest all sits in the two h sounds before it.

Hear it in a sentence

나중에 전화할게요.

Najunge jeonhwahalgeyo.

I'll call you later.

Listen: 나중에 전화할게요.

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

나중에 전화할게요 uses the -ㄹ게요 ending, where the ㄹ tenses the ㄱ into ㄲ, so the verb finishes jeon-hwa-hal-kke-yo. Ahead of it, 나중에 carries its ㅇ across into the particle, so the ng holds through the join instead of being released.

Where English speakers slip

Giving both h sounds full English force produces a hard, staccato 'jeon-HWA-HA-da', which is the most audible way to get this word wrong. Let them lenite. The other correction is the first vowel, which has to stay unrounded, since 'john-hwa' with a rounded ㅗ is a different syllable entirely.