Korean · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "여섯" in Korean?

Q: How do you pronounce 여섯 in Korean?

여섯 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /jʌ.sʌt̚/. It means “six.” yuh-sut -- two syllables built on the same unrounded ㅓ vowel, ending in the same silent stop as 다섯.

yuh-sut -- two syllables built on the same unrounded ㅓ vowel, ending in the same silent stop as 다섯.

여섯 /jʌ.sʌt̚/

yeoseot

Two beats of similar weight, the second clipped by the stop. Repeating the same vowel twice makes this a good drill word for ㅓ -- if the two syllables do not sound like they rhyme, one of them has drifted toward a rounded vowel.

Listen: 여섯

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Sound it out

yeo A y-glide running straight into ㅓ. One syllable and one beat; do not pull it apart into 'ee-uh'.

seo Plain s onto ㅓ again. Both vowels in the word are identical, which makes matching them a handy self-check.

t ㅅ batchim as an unreleased [t̚], closing the word without any burst of air.

Hear it in a sentence

여섯 시에 만나요.

Yeoseot sie mannayo.

Let's meet at six.

Listen: 여섯 시에 만나요.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

여섯 시에 만나요 brings the tensing rule back: the unreleased t of 여섯 hardens the ㅅ of 시 into ㅆ, so it lands as yeo-seot-ssi. And 시 itself is 'shi' rather than 'si', because ㅅ palatalizes in front of ㅣ.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers routinely say 'yo-seot', importing a rounded vowel into the first syllable. ㅕ is a y-glide plus the unrounded ㅓ, so the lips stay slack all the way through. Combine that with the usual over-release of the final t and the word ends up with three syllables instead of two.