LingoDrop
Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "무슨" in Korean?
mu-seun. A rounded first vowel and the lip-flat ㅡ in the second, with a light Korean ㅅ between them.
museun
Two blocks, unstressed, since this is a determiner and leans onto the noun after it. 무슨 일 is one rhythmic unit, and inserting a pause after 무슨 makes it sound like a false start.
Listen: 무슨
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
무슨 일이에요?
Museun irieyo?
What's the matter?
Listen: 무슨 일이에요?
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무슨 일이에요? attaches the copula to 일, so the ㄹ taps forward and the phrase runs i-ri-e-yo. The determiner and its noun then form a single four-beat stream with a rise only at the very end.
Where English speakers slip
Matching the two vowels is the standing error, usually by rounding the second into 'moo-soon', when they are opposites: lips out, then lips flat. The ㅅ also tends to get an English amount of friction, whereas Korean's plain sibilant is noticeably softer and breathier.