LingoDrop
Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "나무" in Korean?
na-mu. Two nasals, an open vowel and then a rounded one -- the whole word is voiced from beginning to end.
namu
A matched set of evenly timed blocks. The consonants are both nasals made in different places and the vowels are opposites in lip shape, so the word moves steadily forward through the mouth without ever stopping the airflow.
Listen: 나무
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
나무에 잎이 많아요.
Namue ipi manayo.
The tree has many leaves.
Listen: 나무에 잎이 많아요.
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나무에 잎이 많아요 attaches 에 to a vowel-final noun, and 잎이 releases its buried ㅍ, which resyllabifies forward and recovers its aspiration, giving i-pi. Then 많아요 deletes its ㅎ.
Where English speakers slip
Reducing the second vowel to a schwa gives 'NAH-muh', the standard English rhythm imposed on a Korean word, when both syllables are full. The other slip is under-rounding the ㅜ, which is tighter and more forward than English 'oo' and needs the lips genuinely pushed out.