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Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "오다" in Korean?
o-da, two beats. Round the lips firmly for the first vowel and hold it steady -- no glide off into 'ow' or 'oo'.
oda
Uniform timing across the pair. What is worth knowing is how much this verb contracts: 오다 plus the polite ending gives 와요, a single syllable with a w-glide, so a two-beat dictionary form becomes a two-beat conjugated form built along completely different lines.
Listen: 오다
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
친구가 우리 집에 와요.
Chinguga uri jibe wayo.
My friend is coming to our house.
Listen: 친구가 우리 집에 와요.
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친구가 우리 집에 와요 ends on the contracted 와요, and 집에 resyllabifies its ㅂ into the particle to give ji-be. The sentence therefore has three vowel-linked joins in a row and not one stop closure surviving to the surface.
Where English speakers slip
English speakers diphthongize the opening vowel into 'oh-oo', stretching a one-beat syllable into something longer and vaguer. Hold ㅗ steady. There is also a habit of putting a glottal stop in front of the word, since English does that before initial vowels, whereas Korean starts cleanly on the vowel itself.