LingoDrop
Korean · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "의사" in Korean?
ui-sa. Word-initial 의 keeps its full diphthong -- a quick ㅡ sliding into ㅣ with no lip rounding at all.
uisa
No peak on either syllable. The word is a good place to hear the difference between initial ㅢ, which keeps its glide, and the possessive particle 의, which is simply pronounced 에 -- the same letter with entirely different values.
Listen: 의사
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
의사 선생님이 아주 친절해요.
Uisa seonsaengnimi aju chinjeolhaeyo.
The doctor is very kind.
Listen: 의사 선생님이 아주 친절해요.
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의사 선생님이 아주 친절해요 puts the honorific 선생님 next, whose ㅁ moves into the copula to give ni-mi. Then 친절해요 lenites its ㅎ after the ㄹ.
Where English speakers slip
Round the vowel and you get 'wi-sa', and flattening it to a plain 'ee' gives 'i-sa', another word entirely -- the glide is real and it is unrounded. The ㅅ then needs to stay light, since English friction makes the second syllable hiss.