Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "쓰다" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 쓰다 in Korean?

쓰다 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /s͈ɯ.da/. It means “to write (also: to use).” sseu-da. The opening ㅆ is tensed -- a hard, hissing s made with a tight throat -- and the vowel is the lip-flat ㅡ, which makes the first syllable the hardest thing in the word.

sseu-da. The opening ㅆ is tensed -- a hard, hissing s made with a tight throat -- and the vowel is the lip-flat ㅡ, which makes the first syllable the hardest thing in the word.

쓰다 /s͈ɯ.da/

sseuda

Two beats that feel unequal, because a tensed onset takes time to build. That extra setup is a property of the consonant rather than an accent, and it makes the first syllable genuinely a fraction longer than the second.

Listen: 쓰다

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Sound it out

sseu ㅆ is the tensed sibilant: more friction than a plain ㅅ, larynx compressed, no breathiness at all. The ㅡ behind it wants the lips flat and the tongue high and back.

da A soft voiced stop over an open vowel: total relaxation after the tension of the ㅆ.

Hear it in a sentence

편지를 쓰고 있어요.

Pyeonjireul sseugo isseoyo.

I'm writing a letter.

Listen: 편지를 쓰고 있어요.

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편지를 쓰고 있어요 keeps the tensed ㅆ in 쓰고 and then gives 있어요 its own double s from the ㅆ batchim resyllabifying forward. Two tensed sibilants in one short sentence, one at the start of a word and one created by a boundary.

Where English speakers slip

Learners produce a plain 'seu-da' and the tension disappears, which matters because a soft-s version is simply a different word. Squeeze the throat and push more air through. The vowel compounds it: 'ssoo-da' with rounded lips is the near-universal substitute, and the lips need to stay spread all the way through that first syllable.