Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "좋아하다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 좋아하다 in Korean?

좋아하다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɕo.a.ha.da/. It means “to like.” jo-a-ha-da. The ㅎ batchim of 좋 disappears completely between vowels, so the first two syllables run straight into each other.

jo-a-ha-da. The ㅎ batchim of 좋 disappears completely between vowels, so the first two syllables run straight into each other.

좋아하다 /tɕo.a.ha.da/

joahada

All four blocks the same length. The word is a clean demonstration that Korean's ㅎ has two fates -- as a batchim before a vowel it is simply deleted, and as an onset between vowels it merely weakens -- and both appear here inside four syllables.

Listen: 좋아하다

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Sound it out

jo Plain ㅈ over a rounded ㅗ, with no aspiration on the consonant at all.

a A bare open ㅏ. The ㅎ that the spelling puts in front of it is deleted outright, so this syllable starts on the vowel.

ha The second ㅎ does survive, though weakened, because it opens a syllable rather than closing one.

da The citation marker, quick and quiet after three syllables of vowel work.

Hear it in a sentence

저는 한국 음식을 좋아해요.

Jeoneun Hanguk eumsigeul joahaeyo.

I like Korean food.

Listen: 저는 한국 음식을 좋아해요.

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

저는 한국 음식을 좋아해요 conjugates to 좋아해요, keeping the deletion, and puts two resyllabifications in front of it: 한국 음식 links its ㄱ across the word boundary, and 음식을 gives eum-si-geul as the ㄱ moves into the particle and voices.

Where English speakers slip

Trying to pronounce the ㅎ gives 'jo-ha-ha-da', which sounds odd and doubles a sound that occurs only once. Before a vowel that batchim is gone. Beginners also flatten the rounded ㅗ into 'juh', losing the contrast with ㅓ that the first syllable depends on.