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Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "눈" in Korean?
nun. One syllable bracketed by two forward n sounds, with a high rounded ㅜ between them.
nun
One beat. Length carries meaning here in a way it rarely does elsewhere: the word for snow is traditionally long and the word for eye is short, though that distinction is fading for younger speakers.
Listen: 눈
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
산에 눈이 많이 왔어요.
Sane nuni mani wasseoyo.
It snowed a lot in the mountains.
Listen: 산에 눈이 많이 왔어요.
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산에 눈이 많이 왔어요 attaches the subject particle, so the closing ㄴ moves forward and the noun becomes nu-ni. Then 많이 deletes its ㅎ to give ma-ni, and 왔어요 resyllabifies its ㅆ into a double s.
Where English speakers slip
English speakers nasalize the vowel and soften both consonants, producing something closer to a hummed 'noon'. Korean wants a clean rounded vowel with definite tongue contact at each end. Under-rounding is the second slip, and it blurs the word toward the many ㅓ syllables nearby.