Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "많이" in Korean?

ma-ni. The ㅎ inside the cluster ㄶ is deleted outright before the vowel, so there is no h in this word at all.

많이 /ma.ni/

mani

Two blocks, both short. The rule on show is ㅎ-deletion: the same cluster that aspirates a following stop in 많다 simply loses its ㅎ before a vowel, so this word and 많다 sound far less alike than their spellings suggest.

Listen: 많이

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Sound it out

ma A clean bilabial m over an open ㅏ, with the ㅎ of the batchim contributing nothing audible.

ni The ㄴ of the cluster ㄶ, resyllabified into the next block, onto a tight 'ee'. Written 이, spoken 'ni'.

Hear it in a sentence

오늘 많이 걸었어요.

Oneul mani georeosseoyo.

I walked a lot today.

Listen: 오늘 많이 걸었어요.

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오늘 많이 걸었어요 puts the adverb in front of a past-tense verb, and 걸었어요 chains two resyllabifications, giving geo-reo-sseo-yo with a tap and then a double s. Nothing in the whole sentence has an audible h in it.

Where English speakers slip

Trying to pronounce the ㅎ gives 'manh-i' or 'man-hi', and neither exists -- before a vowel it is simply gone. The other error is failing to move the ㄴ across, producing 'man-i' with a syllable break, when Korean carries the consonant forward and the word is two smooth beats with no seam.