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Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "머리" in Korean?
meo-ri. An unrounded ㅓ under the m, then a single tap onto a tight 'ee'.
meori
Two blocks delivered flat. The vowels sit at opposite corners of the mouth -- back and unrounded, then front and high -- so the tongue does a lot of travelling inside a very short word.
Listen: 머리
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
머리가 아파요.
Meoriga apayo.
My head hurts.
Listen: 머리가 아파요.
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머리가 아파요 attaches the subject particle to a vowel-final noun, so nothing shifts, and 아파요 supplies an aspirated ㅍ over an open vowel. The sentence has exactly one strong consonant and one flap.
Where English speakers slip
Rounding the first vowel gives 'mo-ri', the perennial ㅓ error, so keep the lips slack. The American r is the other, and here it is especially damaging because the word is so short that a slow middle consonant changes its whole rhythm.