Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "종이" in Korean?

jong-i. The nasal ㅇ of 종 carries into the bare vowel of 이, so the word runs as one continuous stream of resonance.

종이 /tɕoŋ.i/

jongi

There is no accent to place. The syllable boundary you see on the page corresponds to no break in the sound, because a nasal followed by a vowel produces one uninterrupted voiced sequence.

Listen: 종이

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

Sound it out

jong A plain, unaspirated ㅈ, over a rounded ㅗ, closed by a nasal ㅇ that is not released.

i A tight 'ee' that borrows its onset from the nasal in front, having none of its own.

Hear it in a sentence

종이 한 장 주세요.

Jongi han jang juseyo.

Please give me a sheet of paper.

Listen: 종이 한 장 주세요.

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

종이 한 장 주세요 uses the counter 장 after 한, so the phrase has three nasal-final syllables in a row before the verb arrives. The whole request is voiced from beginning to end.

Where English speakers slip

Inserting a g between the syllables gives 'jong-gi', the 'finger' habit again, and it adds a stop that is not there. The other error is aspirating the initial ㅈ, since plain ㅈ carries no breath and 총이 would be a different word.