Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "집" in Korean?

jip. One clipped syllable: a plain unaspirated ㅈ, a tight 'ee', and a ㅂ that closes the lips without releasing.

집 /tɕip̚/

jip

One clipped block. As with every stop batchim, everything changes when a particle attaches: the ㅂ resyllabifies forward and voices, so 집 and 집에 end up with completely different second halves.

Listen: 집

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Sound it out

ji Plain ㅈ at the front of a word, gentle and with no breath, running onto a tight 'ee'.

p Unreleased ㅂ. The lips come together and stay there, and the syllable ends in silence.

Hear it in a sentence

집에 가요.

Jibe gayo.

I'm going home.

Listen: 집에 가요.

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집에 가요 is the minimal demonstration -- with 에 attached, the ㅂ moves into the vowel and becomes a soft b, giving ji-be. The silent closure of the bare noun turns into the most audible consonant in the phrase.

Where English speakers slip

Releasing the p is the recurring error, and it is fully exposed here because the word is one syllable with nothing to hide behind: the lips close and hold. Aspirating the ㅈ is the second slip, and it gives 칩, a different syllable entirely.