Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "중요하다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 중요하다 in Korean?

중요하다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɕuŋ.jo.ɦa.da/. It means “to be important.” jung-yo-ha-da. The ㅇ of 중 is nasal resonance only, and it links straight into the y-glide of 요 with no consonant reset.

jung-yo-ha-da. The ㅇ of 중 is nasal resonance only, and it links straight into the y-glide of 요 with no consonant reset.

중요하다 /tɕuŋ.jo.ɦa.da/

jungyohada

Say all four blocks at the same speed. The seam worth attending to is 중+요, where a nasal meets a glide: Korean carries the nasal resonance right through it, so the two syllables are joined rather than merely adjacent.

Listen: 중요하다

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Sound it out

jung Plain ㅈ, a rounded ㅜ, and a final ㅇ held as pure nasal with no g escaping after it.

yo A y-glide onto rounded ㅗ. The nasal before it flows straight in, so this syllable does not start fresh.

ha Weakened ㅎ between voiced sounds, running onto an open 'ah'.

da Soft, voiced and unstressed, closing the dictionary entry.

Hear it in a sentence

오늘은 중요한 날이에요.

Oneureun jungyohan narieyo.

Today is an important day.

Listen: 오늘은 중요한 날이에요.

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

오늘은 중요한 날이에요 uses the modifier form 중요한 and then 날이에요, where the ㄹ moves into the particle and taps: na-ri-e-yo. The sentence therefore has one nasal join and one flap join inside six syllables.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers release a g after 중, producing 'joong-gyo', because English does exactly that in words like 'finger'. Korean's ㅇ never releases. The other error is a hard h in the third syllable, which should be soft enough to nearly disappear at normal speed.