Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "열쇠" in Korean?

yeol-sswe. The ㄹ tenses the following ㅅ at the compound seam, and 쇠 is a single beat with a w-glide, not 'so-eh'.

열쇠 /jʌl.s͈we/

yeolsoe

Two beats. Compound tensing is doing the work here, and like the ㄲ in 물고기 it is unwritten -- the romanization gives yeolsoe and the mouth gives yeol-sswe.

Listen: 열쇠

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Sound it out

yeol The y-glide runs onto the flat ㅓ, closed by a clear forward ㄹ.

soe The plain ㅅ tenses to ㅆ because of the compound boundary, and ㅚ is a w-glide onto the vowel of 'bed'. Throat locked, lips rounding then spreading, all in one beat.

Hear it in a sentence

열쇠를 가방에 넣었어요.

Yeolsoereul gabange neoeosseoyo.

I put the key in my bag.

Listen: 열쇠를 가방에 넣었어요.

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열쇠를 가방에 넣었어요 attaches the object particle and finishes with 넣었어요, where the ㅎ of 넣 disappears between vowels and the ㅆ resyllabifies, giving neo-eo-sseo-yo.

Where English speakers slip

Softening the ㅅ misses the compound tensing and reading 쇠 as two syllables misses the glide, and most learners do both. Lock the throat for the sibilant and keep the second block to one beat, rounding the lips first and spreading them as the vowel arrives.