츼 — chui
pronounced [치]
츼 is written with ㅊ and ㅢ, but the standard reads it [치] — not the way it is spelled. It is romanized chui. The recording below is of 치, which the standard defines as the same sound.
Frequency: rare — it does not appear in the teaching material at all. The boundary is the median of the cells that appear at all, which works out at 21 occurrences.
The rules that decide this
Standard Korean Pronunciation, Article 5, Proviso 3
In a syllable that has a consonant as its initial sound, ㅢ is pronounced [ㅣ].
자음을 첫소리로 가지고 있는 음절의 'ㅢ'는 [ㅣ]로 발음한다.
희 is read [히] and 긔 is read [기]. Only 의 keeps the full ㅢ sound, because ㅇ carries no sound in initial position.
Romanization of Korean, Chapter 2, Article 1, Note 1
ㅢ is written ui even when it is pronounced [ㅣ]. (광희문 Gwanghuimun)
'ㅢ'는 'ㅣ'로 소리 나더라도 'ui'로 적는다. (광희문 Gwanghuimun)
The single place where the pronunciation line and the romanization line disagree: 희 sounds like [히] but is written hui.
All the rules this site follows
The two letters
Syllables that sound the same
The standard gives these the same reading as 츼, even though they are spelled differently.
- 치chi
Nearby in the chart
Questions people ask
- How do you pronounce 츼? +
- 츼 is read [치], not the way it is spelled. It is romanized chui.
- Why is 츼 romanized chui if it sounds different? +
- Because ㅢ is the one exception in the romanization rules. Note 1 of Chapter 2 Article 1 says ㅢ is written ui even when it is pronounced [ㅣ] — the official example is 광희문 Gwanghuimun.
- Why does 츼 play the recording of 치? +
- Because the standard defines them as the same sound. Rather than leave the cell silent, it plays the 치 recording and says so.
- Is 츼 used in real Korean words? +
- Not in the beginner vocabulary behind this site. It is still a legal syllable, and once you know the two letters it is made of you can read it on sight.