How to Pronounce '죄송합니다': Korean Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce 죄송합니다 in Korean?

죄송합니다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɕwe.soŋ.ham.ni.da/. It means “sorry / excuse me.” jwe-song-ham-ni-da. The first block 죄 is a single syllable containing a w-glide -- 'jweh', never 'joy' -- and 합 becomes 'ham' in front of the ㄴ.

How do you pronounce "죄송합니다" in Korean?

jwe-song-ham-ni-da. The first block 죄 is a single syllable containing a w-glide -- 'jweh', never 'joy' -- and 합 becomes 'ham' in front of the ㄴ.

죄송합니다 /tɕwe.soŋ.ham.ni.da/

joesonghamnida

Five syllables delivered as one formal unit with a slight downward drift. Two things happen phonologically rather than rhythmically: the ㅚ glide in the opening block, and the same ㅂ-to-ㅁ nasalization that runs through every -ㅂ니다 verb ending in the language.

Listen: 죄송합니다

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Sound it out

joe ㅚ is pronounced today as a glide, [we]. Round the lips for w, then move straight to the vowel of 'bed'. One beat, never 'jo-eh'.

song Plain s, a rounded 'oh', and a nasal ng that ends the syllable without any g escaping after it.

ham The -ㅂ니다 ending again: the written ㅂ of 합 turns into m in front of ㄴ, so nothing plosive survives.

ni Tongue-tip n and a pure 'ee', both clipped short by the speed of the formal ending.

da Relaxed final syllable. The whole ending stays low and even, without a rise on the last beat.

Hear it in a sentence

죄송합니다, 잘 못 들었어요.

Joesonghamnida, jal mot deureosseoyo.

Sorry, I didn't hear you.

Listen: 죄송합니다, 잘 못 들었어요.

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죄송합니다, 잘 못 들었어요 is a fine demonstration of tensing. 못 ends in an unreleased t and 들 starts with ㄷ, so that ㄷ hardens into a tensed ㄸ -- mot-tteu-reo-sseo-yo -- and the 들었어요 tail then resyllabifies twice over as its batchim consonants hop forward into the vowel-initial syllables.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers see 죄 and read it as the diphthong of 'coin', giving 'joy-song'. The Korean vowel is a w-glide onto a front e, a completely different shape: lips round first, then spread. And as with 감사합니다, saying 'hap-ni-da' instead of 'ham-ni-da' immediately marks you as reading rather than speaking.