LingoDrop
Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "의자" in Korean?
ui-ja. Because 의 sits in the first syllable of the word, the full diphthong is pronounced -- a quick ㅡ sliding into ㅣ, with no lip rounding at all.
uija
Even weight on both blocks. The diphthong makes the first one feel longer, but that is movement rather than emphasis -- the tongue travels across the mouth while the voice stays perfectly level.
Listen: 의자
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
이 의자에 앉으세요.
I uijae anjeuseyo.
Sit on this chair.
Listen: 이 의자에 앉으세요.
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이 의자에 앉으세요 attaches 에 to a vowel-final noun, so nothing shifts there, and 앉으세요 does the interesting work: the double batchim ㄵ splits, the ㅈ resyllabifies forward, and the word runs an-jeu-se-yo.
Where English speakers slip
Letting the vowel round gives 'wi-ja', a different sound entirely, since ㅢ has no lip rounding anywhere in it. Pronouncing it as a flat 'ee' is the opposite error, dropping the glide that word-initial position preserves -- 의 keeps its full form here in a way it does not as a particle.