Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Freakstar]

의

Is it pronounced "eh" or "eu-ee"

[amo_jh]

eui

[wo buxihuan hanguoren]

[Qinella]

[seoulshock]

depends how you use it.

when reading a sentence just use 'eh' -- you'll be correct more often than not. like someone said before -- on its own its 'eu-i'.

[Vancouver]

its probably the toughest one for foreigners. my cousin's daughter's name is 의진 :p but her english teacher calls her lauren

[thebomb]

But if 의 is combined with ㅎ, 희, it is pronounced 히(hee). as in 나희..., and the name 희경 is Hee-Gyoung.

[nobbyken]

의 is also a subject marker in a sentence, pronounced "Ughee"(deep/sharp Ugh sound), but pronounced Hee when 희.

[Theda]

[aaabank]

Pronounce it as a long 'a' as in the word "late" if you are using it as a possessive ('s). If it is not used as the possessive, pronounce it as "eu-ee" but do that as part of one syllable.

[mikekim]

okay for like doctor it sounds to me like oeuil-sa. not eu-ee-sa

[out of context]

Generally, it's pronounced 의 (eu + y) at the beginning of a word, 이 at the middle or end of a word, and 에 when used as a grammatical suffix. So 의문 (question) is usually pronounced "euy-moon", while 문의 (inquiry) is pronounced "moo-nee", and 문의 (the door's) is pronounced "moo-nay". Of course, in all cases it can be pronounced "euy", but that's usually only in very careful pronunciation. In English, when we say "to" in conversation, we usually say "tuh" instead of "too" unless we're intentionally enunciating, and this is kind of the same thing.

Then there are constructions like 민주주의의 의의 ("the meaning of democracy" -- I got this from the movie "Radio Star"). It would normally sound like "min joo joo ee ay euy ee".

[wo buxihuan hanguoren]

[Freakstar]

Thanks everyone for the clarification. Dang! I didn't know that it could be pronounced three different ways.