Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "시작하다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 시작하다 in Korean?

시작하다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɕi.dʑa.kʰa.da/. It means “to start / to begin.” shi-ja-ka-da. The first syllable is 'shi' because of the ㅣ, and the ㄱ of 작 fuses with the ㅎ of 하 into a single aspirated ㅋ.

shi-ja-ka-da. The first syllable is 'shi' because of the ㅣ, and the ㄱ of 작 fuses with the ㅎ of 하 into a single aspirated ㅋ.

시작하다 /ɕi.dʑa.kʰa.da/

sijakada

Equal weight across the four syllables. Two independent processes are on display and neither is rhythmic: palatalization at the front and aspiration coalescence in the middle. Between them, the spoken word has fewer distinct consonants than the writing implies.

Listen: 시작하다

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Sound it out

si ㅅ before ㅣ palatalizes into 'sh'. It happens automatically, in every word, with no exceptions worth remembering.

ja Plain ㅈ voiced between vowels, sitting over a wide open 'ah'.

ka A ㄱ and a ㅎ on the page become one breathy consonant in the mouth. The h does not survive as itself.

da Quiet and unaccented, closing a word whose real interest is the aspirated consonant before it.

Hear it in a sentence

영화가 여덟 시에 시작해요.

Yeonghwaga yeodeol sie sijakaeyo.

The movie starts at eight.

Listen: 영화가 여덟 시에 시작해요.

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영화가 여덟 시에 시작해요 puts three things in a row: 여덟 drops the ㅂ of its cluster, 시 tenses to ㅆ after it, and then 시작해요 performs both of its own tricks, palatalizing the first ㅅ and fusing the ㄱ with the ㅎ.

Where English speakers slip

Pronouncing 'si' with a plain s is the first slip, and it applies to every ㅅ+ㅣ in the language. The second is reading the ㅎ as a separate sound and producing 'si-jak-ha-da' with a hard k and a gap. There is one aspirated consonant there, not two sounds -- and hearing it that way makes the whole family of -하다 verbs built on stop-final nouns easier.