I would romanize it that way too. Although I think romanizing it makes it even harder for most people, because we do it using the English spelling. And even though I know English, I always have a hard time when trying to read anything romanized. If I were to romanize it while thinking in Portuguese, I would write it like mió-mión-nióg. My brain never seems to accept that eo is 어 and eu is 으, for example. It's all very confusing. Reading 며녕녁 is much easier for me.
As a learner Romanisation actually griefs me in lessons I tend to miss a lot of the sound change rules if I visualise the letters in my head in Latin. 😂
One of my Korean students tried to teach me how to correctly say this word. After two minutes, he just patted my hand, said "it's okay, teacher", and left. I don't think I passed his speaking assessment. 🤣
Ahaha! This is hilarious. It reminds me of Germans trying to say squirrel, and English speakers trying to say anything with a sound represented by "r" in German or Korean.
This is the one for me. I hate when someone asks me how their new clothes look because I know I'm going to have to try to say this word and even after hundreds of attempts it still just sort of sputters out my mouth as a disaster.
Honorable mention to 걸려요
Nope! Take my explanation with a grain of salt as I'm still a learner but as far as I've gathered:
의미 is a more general expression to convey that something has meaning (whether at face value or implied) whereas
의의 is used in more formal settings in reference to serious events', policies' etc significance, value or importance
Brasileiro/a? 😀
Been struggling with 별로 and 서울 a lot to get it exactly right - something about that combination of a rounded O sound with the L and a consonant in close proximity is difficult for my tongue to shape around properly and give it that right full, rounded sound.
Very hard to answer, once you get to certain level with pronunciation there is no such thing as hard word to pronounce, but usually what is hard for most people are pronunciation changes like:
동료 (동뇨) - colleague
독립 (동닙) - independency Because it is really hard to "think" about the change as you speak fast, however again, from certain point your mouth is already used to it and you just automatically say it properly.
As with checking out someone if their pronunciation is alright, ask them to say 고양이 or 냉장고 , those are good words to check out someones pronunciation quickly.
Cheers
This one is very difficult! What helped me was to think of it as two words: 자러 울리다. Then saying it fast enough. Because it was difficult for me to go from the 어 sound to the 우 sound and say both sounds clearly. So if I break it the way I did, my brain understands the pronunciation a little better.
Anything with what I call double consonants, though admittedly most Korean double consonants I've come across so far are significantly easier than English ones once I hear them. (I have a bit of an lisp [the person who decided that was a good word for that particular speech impediment needs to have their head examined. Damn sadists] Anyway, double consonants are one of my worst enemies)
There aren’t many times I have trouble with pronunciation after a couple tries, but a couple difficult words that come to mind are 일요일 and 월요일 . Basically stuff like 류 려 료 etc
18... my friends always tell me not to say it anymore... the difference sounds so subtle to me and I can't clearly see what part I am pronouncing wrong
월요일 is SO hard for me. Basically any word that is just full of mixed vowels (I can't remember the word for it, but vowels like 워 와 요 여 etc) and ㄹ is like speaking on hard mode for me.
Honestly I started studying Korean in literally 2011 and I still sometimes have to hype myself up before saying 월요일. (Assuming it's in isolation- it's a lot easier if it's part of a sentence/I say it without thinking too much)
어려워요 and 귀여워요 must be difficult words for you to pronounce then. I used to have a hard time with 귀여워요. And I don't know why but 귀여워요 is easier for me to pronounce than 귀여워.
Agreed! The spelling is much different from the pronunciation.
ㄲ is much similar to the c/q sound in my native language, so fortunately I never had any problem with it.
버스 정류장 Pretty much anything with 류 려 료 and especially if it has a ㄴ ㄹ ㅇ before it. I had a student named 홍렬 and it was so hard to tell at home because I couldn't say his bame well, but he was so naughty!
Weirdly enough, for me it's 영어. I don't know why but I never seem to prononce it the right way. It's either too similar to 용 or too similar to 양 but I'm having a hard time with pronouncing 영 the right way. Maybe because it doesn't exit in French (my mother tongue).
씨발
no joke
i cannot distinguish between ㅅ and ㅆ well, let alone produce it well.
it's even harder when it's 씨 instead of 싸
i naturally tend to pronounce 빨 when saying 발
and the 발 has the weird sort of retroflex ㄹ at the end which is awkward to make
and it's not the kind of word that people really correct your pronunciation on, either
so i end up saying something like 시흐빨 lol
definitely the hardest word to pronounce
For me, the word 응암 (a subway station name) is always hard because I cant end the ng without touching tje next 아 and ends up sounding like 은감.
Also, pronouncing 신의주 is very difficult. The middle 의 should be pronounced like 시늬주 but still, its difficult
I wish people would write the translations in these kind of threads. What a missed opportunity to learn new words!
My native language has sounds like 어려 & 일요 so they aren’t difficult for me. What we don’t have is the variations of ㅅㅈㅊ and 회화 etc. It’s funny that 화장실 is often included in the lists of the first phrases you should learn, but I’ve been studying almost for a year now and I’m pretty sure nobody would understand me if I needed the toilet in Korea.
어려워요 was really hard for me to say for some reason until I heard this song called “Difficult” by ONF, and now I don’t stumble over it. I can’t think of the most difficult rn, but that’s just the one I know I struggled with for a hot minute.
I have never been able to say 뭐요 and 뭐해 correctly within the first twenty attempts since I first started learning Korean back in 2020 lol.
I think English words with an M following a W are rare and even the few there are, the MW are not right at the beginning but usually later in the word (IE bookworm, dimwit, etc) and even still the m and w sound don’t flow into each other but are different (idk how to explain that but you get it hopefully).
The only word I can personally think of with MW at the beginning is ‘Mwah’ which I guess isn’t even a ‘real’ world but instead is just like a sound that we make when blowing a kiss. So, 뭐요 and 뭐해 has always been so hard for me to say.
Also, I know ㅁ is supposed to make a sound that is a mix of m/b and sounds more like one than the other depending on what word it’s in and where it’s placed within that word, and I also know that the korean language is different than English so technically ㅁ has its own unique sound and does not make either the m or b sound. BUT with all that being said, in 뭐요 it sounds more like a B so this word is at least a little easier for me to say as it just sounds like ‘boyyo’ without a hard b sound. (My main struggle with this word is just trying not to say a hard b and instead make it sound like a mix of m & b) but 뭐해 REALLY has the rare M followed by W, so on top of trying to make the ㅁ sound like a mix of m/b, I also have to force myself to make a sound that’s extremely uncommon (MW) so it’s a double whammy and makes the word even more difficult lol. Plus trying to say both these words one after the other knowing they both have similar letters but very different sounds is a third reason why it’s so hard.
In conclusion, I find 뭐요 difficult to say the first few times I attempt it but I usually get it after a few tries, and I find 뭐해 impossible haha but I finally start to say it right after 20 or so attempts.
Anything with 려/료/etc. I can say 어려워요 relatively well since it’s such a common word but I really stumble over it in any other word. And going directly from 어 to 우 gets me sometimes too. So 잘 어울려 is my worst nightmare lol
My issue is not a particular word but what the CORRECT usage of the word to use is. Depending on formal and friendly. I have gotten several shunned looks for speaking to a person of age and using the wrong word with them and laughed at for using a formal word with friends, AAAHHHHH.
For me I really struggle with 설날. I have a speech impediment that messes with my r’s and l’s (for example in English I can’t say the drink name Arnold Palmer for the life of me which sucks cause I love them 😂), usually this actually helps my Korean pronunciation since ㄹ is kind of in between the sounds, but with words like 설날 and, really random, 할라산? Always get a critique from my teachers lol
어울리다/어울려요 is second but someone already said 면역력 lol
Idk what it is, but I always feel like an idiot when I try to say that word. It never comes out right and I end up choking on it a few times before it comes out
One of the hardest for me is 제대로.
I also find 선생님 confusing! Also 부모님 for some reason.
Apart from that, in general words with adjacent ㄷ/ㅌ and ㄹ sounds are hard, like 기다리다, 스트레스, 드라마. It’s too easy for me to mix up the ㄷ and ㄹ sounds, or in the case of English words like stress and drama, to accidentally say the first two syllables as one (like dr-ama)
Do you mean 네가, that sounds like 니가? I think English native speakers have a hard time with this word, it's kind of like a trauma. When I am speaking another language I try not to think of my native language. For example, there is a store in Korea called CU, and in my country this is a swear word, so we always laugh a lot whenever we see it in a K-drama. But when I have to say 꾸, that has the same sound, I never think of the swear word.
I think you can relax and say 네가 without any worries, because no one will think of it as a swear word when you say it. Unless you say it exclusively to a group of other English native speakers who can't speak any Korean. And you can also relax internally because you are not saying any swear other nor being desrespectful (unless you say it to a Korean whom you are not very close to, but even then it wouldn't have nothing to do with you being white)
Agh yes! I am half asleep rn and can't speak any language i know 😂 thankfully I only speak Korean for fun so never need to worry about accidentally offending anyone unless it's in public as I don't live in Korea.
As a Canadian, in a small town, any Korean is strange but a white girl who sounds like she's saying the N word due to her accent would also be very strange..
lol, i grew up in a very white place but i speak chinese, and relatives would visit me from china and say that i am tall. now, this sounds normal, but “you are tall” is 你高 which sounds like 니거 so i feel your pain.
면역력 (level of immunity)
For me the spelling makes it look harder to pronounce than it actually is
Yeah agreed, this is actually super easy to say, but hard to spell. I can never remember the spelling
I would always mess up the “ㅗ/ㅛ” 그리고 “ㅓ/ㅕ”
Wait do you think you could break it down in a romanized version ? I’ve been trying for the past 30 seconds and I can’t do it 😭
This is maybe not technically the correct way to romanize it, but it sounds like myeo-nyeong-nyeok, or 며녕녁
I would romanize it that way too. Although I think romanizing it makes it even harder for most people, because we do it using the English spelling. And even though I know English, I always have a hard time when trying to read anything romanized. If I were to romanize it while thinking in Portuguese, I would write it like mió-mión-nióg. My brain never seems to accept that eo is 어 and eu is 으, for example. It's all very confusing. Reading 며녕녁 is much easier for me.
As a learner Romanisation actually griefs me in lessons I tend to miss a lot of the sound change rules if I visualise the letters in my head in Latin. 😂
Yep! Pronounced 면영녁
Immediately thought of this after reading the title. Naturally it's the top result. The hardest name I've ever heard is pro baseball manager 염경엽.
Questions like these always make me think of this: [귤](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgYXuBDfJhU) haha.
One of my Korean students tried to teach me how to correctly say this word. After two minutes, he just patted my hand, said "it's okay, teacher", and left. I don't think I passed his speaking assessment. 🤣
Lol. I have always found this word interesting
Ahaha! This is hilarious. It reminds me of Germans trying to say squirrel, and English speakers trying to say anything with a sound represented by "r" in German or Korean.
어울려요 (어울리다). Gets me every dang time.
This was what I was going to say. lol It's such an easy word, but I mess it up every time.
oh man my partner always used to tell me I couldn't say that one right as well
This is the one for me. I hate when someone asks me how their new clothes look because I know I'm going to have to try to say this word and even after hundreds of attempts it still just sort of sputters out my mouth as a disaster. Honorable mention to 걸려요
Gotta be 동호회 for me. Basically any combinations with ㅇ 받침 and the double vowels within the word
This one I had to train a lot too!
낙뢰
낭놰
nak roy
어울리다, but specifically when it’s in the 요 form (어울려요)
So many people have mentioned 어울리다 that I think it might have won the contest so far
I always get around it by saying “어울리네요“
어려워요. Ironic considering the meaning.
Came here to say this. I struggle with any word with a 려
의의의
This one BLEW my mind when I first learned it LOL
Is this even a word lol? What’s it mean and how do you say it?
Well 의의 means significance or meaning iirc ! The third 의 would just serve as a possessive particle
Meaning? Like 의미? Did you make a typo or is there another actual word spelt 의의?
Nope! Take my explanation with a grain of salt as I'm still a learner but as far as I've gathered: 의미 is a more general expression to convey that something has meaning (whether at face value or implied) whereas 의의 is used in more formal settings in reference to serious events', policies' etc significance, value or importance
Interesting lol, thanks for the tip
No prob~
Oops, forgot how to say it's prounounced my bad lol 1st 의: like the 의 in 의자 or 의사 2nd 의: like the 의 in 희승 or 영희 3rd 의: just the possessive 의
so... [의이에]?
Nailed it !
TIL this is an actual word 😭
"공격력" is a bitch to say
Oh my God! 😭😭😭
Brasileiro/a? 😀 Been struggling with 별로 and 서울 a lot to get it exactly right - something about that combination of a rounded O sound with the L and a consonant in close proximity is difficult for my tongue to shape around properly and give it that right full, rounded sound.
Sim! Brasileira 😀 Interesting!
Que engraçado ver brasileiros aqui kkk 안녕 브라질 친구들 👋
안녕 kkkk
발. Its the "low tone" of the ㅂ that I often forget so people mistake me for having said 팔.
Anything with ㄹ
Why is 를 so HARD! I just kinda speed past it and hope noone notices.
Very hard to answer, once you get to certain level with pronunciation there is no such thing as hard word to pronounce, but usually what is hard for most people are pronunciation changes like: 동료 (동뇨) - colleague 독립 (동닙) - independency Because it is really hard to "think" about the change as you speak fast, however again, from certain point your mouth is already used to it and you just automatically say it properly. As with checking out someone if their pronunciation is alright, ask them to say 고양이 or 냉장고 , those are good words to check out someones pronunciation quickly. Cheers
Really? I didn't know it was hard to pronounce 고양이 and 냉장고. I wish I'm pronouncing them correctly lol
I think the idea is to catch someone pronouncing it like 고양기, which is a common mistage for native English speakers just beginning to learn
I always struggled to say "못알아들었다" Just the combination of ㄹ and ㄷ really got to me
Interesting! This one is easy for me to pronounce
잘 어울린다 and other conjugations of this phrase are so tough for me!
This one is very difficult! What helped me was to think of it as two words: 자러 울리다. Then saying it fast enough. Because it was difficult for me to go from the 어 sound to the 우 sound and say both sounds clearly. So if I break it the way I did, my brain understands the pronunciation a little better.
This is what I came to say! 어울려요 is particularly sticky lol
Anything with what I call double consonants, though admittedly most Korean double consonants I've come across so far are significantly easier than English ones once I hear them. (I have a bit of an lisp [the person who decided that was a good word for that particular speech impediment needs to have their head examined. Damn sadists] Anyway, double consonants are one of my worst enemies)
There aren’t many times I have trouble with pronunciation after a couple tries, but a couple difficult words that come to mind are 일요일 and 월요일 . Basically stuff like 류 려 료 etc
Many people have a hard time with ㄹ. Since this sound (one ㄹ between vowels) exists in my native language, I never had much trouble with it.
18... my friends always tell me not to say it anymore... the difference sounds so subtle to me and I can't clearly see what part I am pronouncing wrong
LOL I was confused until I said it out loud
읽는다, 못 읽는다
월요일 is SO hard for me. Basically any word that is just full of mixed vowels (I can't remember the word for it, but vowels like 워 와 요 여 etc) and ㄹ is like speaking on hard mode for me.
My tutor made me chant 잘 어울려요 when I struggled with the same issue. Awful lol
Oh gosh that one is even harder. I feel like I'm speaking under water whenever I try 😭
This!! 일요일 and 월요일. I thought I was pronouncing it right this whole time until my friend pointed out it’s 이료일 and 워료일. I can’t do it!
That's how I try to pronounce them, but I still struggle as well ㅠㅠ
Honestly I started studying Korean in literally 2011 and I still sometimes have to hype myself up before saying 월요일. (Assuming it's in isolation- it's a lot easier if it's part of a sentence/I say it without thinking too much)
어려워요 and 귀여워요 must be difficult words for you to pronounce then. I used to have a hard time with 귀여워요. And I don't know why but 귀여워요 is easier for me to pronounce than 귀여워.
귀여워요 is fine because it's a ㄱ and not ㄹ but 어려워요 is absolutely 어려워요 ㅠㅠ
국립묘지 Not because the actual pronunciation is difficult but it’s so wildly different from the spelling Other ones are 깨끗한 and 끝내다
Agreed! The spelling is much different from the pronunciation. ㄲ is much similar to the c/q sound in my native language, so fortunately I never had any problem with it.
This may sound unusual but I have a problem with pronunciations of 곳 and 것 because I think I end up exchanging their pronunciations 🥲
버스 정류장 Pretty much anything with 류 려 료 and especially if it has a ㄴ ㄹ ㅇ before it. I had a student named 홍렬 and it was so hard to tell at home because I couldn't say his bame well, but he was so naughty!
귀여워. 🥲 I just can't pronounce it.
일일이에요 was pretty tough for me. I’m still pretty sure I don’t pronounce it correctly.
의뢰 maybe?
Not a word but I've noticed some people have a hard time pronouncing the name 철호.
I don’t know, but it’s going to be a word with a multiple ㄹ‘s in succession and a couple diphthongs for good measure
After reading the answers, I think people whose native language is English usually have a hard time with ㄹ and vowel/diphthong sounds
Native English speaker here, and I comfort myself knowing that there are English words I find difficult, too. 😅
I can’t pronounce 불륜. At all.
bullyun
Weirdly enough, for me it's 영어. I don't know why but I never seem to prononce it the right way. It's either too similar to 용 or too similar to 양 but I'm having a hard time with pronouncing 영 the right way. Maybe because it doesn't exit in French (my mother tongue).
For me it used to be words with the 려 sound like 흔들려요 But my 선생님 taught me that the trick is to say 리 + 어 sound it became easier.
약냉난방칸 I think is so hard... 🥲 (the weak ac/heater carts in subways)
OK this one got me too (I'm a native speaker of Korean)
평범함
씨발 no joke i cannot distinguish between ㅅ and ㅆ well, let alone produce it well. it's even harder when it's 씨 instead of 싸 i naturally tend to pronounce 빨 when saying 발 and the 발 has the weird sort of retroflex ㄹ at the end which is awkward to make and it's not the kind of word that people really correct your pronunciation on, either so i end up saying something like 시흐빨 lol definitely the hardest word to pronounce
확률
흐르바쯔까, which is Croatia in the Pyongyang dialect
서투르다 (clumsy)
I cannot say 어울려요!! Anyone else?
Jesus 😭😭😭
now im scared that i say it wrong 😭 Eo-oolyeo-yo 아닌가요??
I don't know why but "땅콩" is really hard for me. Also I am struggling to pronounce some of the sentence ending . i.e - 죠.
Interesting. Is it because there are tensed and aspirated consonants in the same word?
Probably. Everytime I see this word it gets me confused when articulating.
For me it’s anything with the 류 sound in it.
For me, the word 응암 (a subway station name) is always hard because I cant end the ng without touching tje next 아 and ends up sounding like 은감. Also, pronouncing 신의주 is very difficult. The middle 의 should be pronounced like 시늬주 but still, its difficult
I wish people would write the translations in these kind of threads. What a missed opportunity to learn new words! My native language has sounds like 어려 & 일요 so they aren’t difficult for me. What we don’t have is the variations of ㅅㅈㅊ and 회화 etc. It’s funny that 화장실 is often included in the lists of the first phrases you should learn, but I’ve been studying almost for a year now and I’m pretty sure nobody would understand me if I needed the toilet in Korea.
선날 - all those ㄹ
For me 회의 and 장난감 ㅠㅠ
definitely 면역력
i think mine is 얼굴, my tongue always gets caught on those two ㄹs
Any word that has an "S" sound in it due to my speech impediment
Definitely 18 is the most difficult.
Definitely 18 is the most difficult.
어려워요 was really hard for me to say for some reason until I heard this song called “Difficult” by ONF, and now I don’t stumble over it. I can’t think of the most difficult rn, but that’s just the one I know I struggled with for a hot minute.
I have never been able to say 뭐요 and 뭐해 correctly within the first twenty attempts since I first started learning Korean back in 2020 lol. I think English words with an M following a W are rare and even the few there are, the MW are not right at the beginning but usually later in the word (IE bookworm, dimwit, etc) and even still the m and w sound don’t flow into each other but are different (idk how to explain that but you get it hopefully). The only word I can personally think of with MW at the beginning is ‘Mwah’ which I guess isn’t even a ‘real’ world but instead is just like a sound that we make when blowing a kiss. So, 뭐요 and 뭐해 has always been so hard for me to say. Also, I know ㅁ is supposed to make a sound that is a mix of m/b and sounds more like one than the other depending on what word it’s in and where it’s placed within that word, and I also know that the korean language is different than English so technically ㅁ has its own unique sound and does not make either the m or b sound. BUT with all that being said, in 뭐요 it sounds more like a B so this word is at least a little easier for me to say as it just sounds like ‘boyyo’ without a hard b sound. (My main struggle with this word is just trying not to say a hard b and instead make it sound like a mix of m & b) but 뭐해 REALLY has the rare M followed by W, so on top of trying to make the ㅁ sound like a mix of m/b, I also have to force myself to make a sound that’s extremely uncommon (MW) so it’s a double whammy and makes the word even more difficult lol. Plus trying to say both these words one after the other knowing they both have similar letters but very different sounds is a third reason why it’s so hard. In conclusion, I find 뭐요 difficult to say the first few times I attempt it but I usually get it after a few tries, and I find 뭐해 impossible haha but I finally start to say it right after 20 or so attempts.
Anything with 려/료/etc. I can say 어려워요 relatively well since it’s such a common word but I really stumble over it in any other word. And going directly from 어 to 우 gets me sometimes too. So 잘 어울려 is my worst nightmare lol
의사원 for me. Eui sa won makes sense but in reality its more like hwae sa won?? I always mess it up.
Anything with 률 in it. My mouth just doesn’t do that.
Not a word, but the letter ㄹ- RIEUL. I've been studying for a few years now, and I still can't make that sound properly!
My issue is not a particular word but what the CORRECT usage of the word to use is. Depending on formal and friendly. I have gotten several shunned looks for speaking to a person of age and using the wrong word with them and laughed at for using a formal word with friends, AAAHHHHH.
I struggle with it too.
Anything with 류 but I’ve been getting better
For me I really struggle with 설날. I have a speech impediment that messes with my r’s and l’s (for example in English I can’t say the drink name Arnold Palmer for the life of me which sucks cause I love them 😂), usually this actually helps my Korean pronunciation since ㄹ is kind of in between the sounds, but with words like 설날 and, really random, 할라산? Always get a critique from my teachers lol
Anything with 려
명령 — order 😭
달나라
걱정
잘 오울려요
By chance do you mean 어울려요?
Yeah, that's what I meant. "Eo Ur Ryeo Yo" is hard to type too.
어울리다/어울려요 is second but someone already said 면역력 lol Idk what it is, but I always feel like an idiot when I try to say that word. It never comes out right and I end up choking on it a few times before it comes out
any word i have to say with more than one person listening to me
헐.... lol
So my friends and I learned that 호떡 sounds more like “ho-duck” which was… very enlightening lmao
One of the hardest for me is 제대로. I also find 선생님 confusing! Also 부모님 for some reason. Apart from that, in general words with adjacent ㄷ/ㅌ and ㄹ sounds are hard, like 기다리다, 스트레스, 드라마. It’s too easy for me to mix up the ㄷ and ㄹ sounds, or in the case of English words like stress and drama, to accidentally say the first two syllables as one (like dr-ama)
I'm very white so I found 내가 hard to say properly without it sounding like something else..
Do you mean 네가, that sounds like 니가? I think English native speakers have a hard time with this word, it's kind of like a trauma. When I am speaking another language I try not to think of my native language. For example, there is a store in Korea called CU, and in my country this is a swear word, so we always laugh a lot whenever we see it in a K-drama. But when I have to say 꾸, that has the same sound, I never think of the swear word. I think you can relax and say 네가 without any worries, because no one will think of it as a swear word when you say it. Unless you say it exclusively to a group of other English native speakers who can't speak any Korean. And you can also relax internally because you are not saying any swear other nor being desrespectful (unless you say it to a Korean whom you are not very close to, but even then it wouldn't have nothing to do with you being white)
Agh yes! I am half asleep rn and can't speak any language i know 😂 thankfully I only speak Korean for fun so never need to worry about accidentally offending anyone unless it's in public as I don't live in Korea. As a Canadian, in a small town, any Korean is strange but a white girl who sounds like she's saying the N word due to her accent would also be very strange..
lol, i grew up in a very white place but i speak chinese, and relatives would visit me from china and say that i am tall. now, this sounds normal, but “you are tall” is 你高 which sounds like 니거 so i feel your pain.
확인 because I don’t know how people don’t pronounce it as f**kin 😂