Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "말하다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 말하다 in Korean?

말하다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /mal.ha.da/. It means “to say / to speak.” mal-ha-da. The ㅎ is wedged between a ㄹ and a vowel, so it weakens noticeably -- fast speech gets close to ma-ra-da.

mal-ha-da. The ㅎ is wedged between a ㄹ and a vowel, so it weakens noticeably -- fast speech gets close to ma-ra-da.

말하다 /mal.ha.da/

malhada

A flat three-beat rhythm. The variable here is not stress but how much of the ㅎ survives: careful speech keeps it, casual speech reduces it, and the ㄹ then taps straight into the following vowel. Both versions are normal and neither is an error.

Listen: 말하다

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Sound it out

mal The bilabial nasal ㅁ, an open 'ah', and a clear forward l with the tongue tip up at the ridge.

ha This ㅎ is squeezed between voiced sounds and lenites: careful speech keeps a light h, and at speed it thins almost to nothing.

da The ㄷ takes its voicing from the vowels around it, and the 'ah' stays wide rather than reducing.

Hear it in a sentence

저한테 말해 주세요.

Jeohante malhae juseyo.

Please tell me.

Listen: 저한테 말해 주세요.

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저한테 말해 주세요 uses the conjugated 말해, where the same lenition applies and the phrase lands close to ma-rae ju-se-yo. Note also that 저한테 keeps its aspirated ㅌ fully intact -- the ㅎ softens, but the ㅌ never does.

Where English speakers slip

Two opposite errors show up here. Some learners give the ㅎ a full English h and produce a hard 'mal-HA-da', which sounds over-articulated. Others delete it entirely even in careful speech, which sounds sloppy in a formal setting. Aim for a light breathy transition, and keep the l bright and forward rather than the dark English l of 'mall'.