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Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "오늘" in Korean?
o-neul. A rounded first vowel, the lip-flat ㅡ in the second, and a bright forward l to finish.
oneul
Both syllables run the same length. The final ㄹ is the part that changes: attach a particle and it taps forward into the vowel, so 오늘 and 오늘은 have their syllable boundaries in different places.
Listen: 오늘
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
오늘 비가 와요.
Oneul biga wayo.
It's raining today.
Listen: 오늘 비가 와요.
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오늘 비가 와요 leaves 오늘 bare, so the ㄹ stays a held lateral rather than becoming a tap. Compare that with 오늘은 elsewhere in the course, where the same consonant flicks forward into the particle and produces o-neu-reun.
Where English speakers slip
The lip transition is the technical difficulty and 'oh-nool' with two rounded vowels is the usual result, when only the first is rounded. Then the l needs to be bright, because an English dark l pulls the ㅡ backward and blurs a vowel that is already hard for learners to place.