Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "낮다" in Korean?

nat-tta. The ㅈ batchim neutralizes to an unreleased t, and that stop then tenses the ending.

낮다 /nat̚.t͈a/

natda

Say both blocks at the same speed. The word sounds almost identical to several others in citation form, because so many different letters collapse to the same unreleased t -- the differences only reappear once a vowel follows.

Listen: 낮다

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Sound it out

na Forward n over a wide open ㅏ, both kept short.

t Written ㅈ, realized as an unreleased [t̚]. Korean permits only seven final sounds, and an affricate is not one of them.

da Tensed ㄸ, forced by the closure sitting in front of it.

Hear it in a sentence

이 책상은 좀 낮아요.

I chaeksangeun jom najayo.

This desk is a bit low.

Listen: 이 책상은 좀 낮아요.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

이 책상은 좀 낮아요 brings the ㅈ back: it resyllabifies forward and voices, so the adjective is na-ja-yo with an audible j. Ahead of it, 책상은 tenses its ㅅ after the unreleased k, giving chaek-ssang-eun.

Where English speakers slip

Pronouncing the written ㅈ produces 'naj-da', which is not a possible Korean syllable shape -- the tongue stops at the ridge instead. And the ending needs its tensed ㄸ, which learners consistently soften because nothing in the romanization tells them to tighten anything.