Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "나중에" in Korean?

na-jung-e. The nasal ㅇ of 중 carries across into the particle, so the last two blocks are joined by held resonance rather than separated.

나중에 /na.dʑuŋ.e/

najunge

Three blocks, level. The seam between 중 and 에 is what makes the word worth attention: a nasal meeting a bare vowel produces one continuous stream rather than the clean break the spelling implies.

Listen: 나중에

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Sound it out

na Forward n over an open ㅏ, both kept short.

jung The plain affricate, voiced between vowels, a rounded ㅜ, and a nasal ㅇ that is never released.

e The location particle, a pure ㅔ. The nasal in front flows straight into it, so this syllable does not start fresh.

Hear it in a sentence

나중에 봐요.

Najunge bwayo.

See you later.

Listen: 나중에 봐요.

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나중에 전화할게요 follows the adverb with a promise form, and 전화할게요 does two things at once: both ㅎ sounds lenite between voiced neighbours, and the ㄹ tenses the ㄱ into ㄲ.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers release a g between 중 and 에, producing 'na-joong-geh' on the model of 'singer' versus 'finger', and Korean never does this. The other error is aspirating the ㅈ, which between vowels should be as soft as it can possibly be.