ㅚ
Korean vowel · /ø/, also pronounced [we]
ㅚ is /ø/, also pronounced [we] — the German ö; the standard also allows the we of wet. It appears in 19 cells of the syllable chart, 9 of which have audio you can play here.
15 of the 568 words in the dictionary behind this site contain ㅚ — 10% of the bar the most common letter would fill.
| Name | 외 |
|---|---|
| Sound | /ø/, also pronounced [we] |
| Romanized | oe |
| Hear it | Recorded by a native Korean speaker |
ㅚ in the syllable chart
9 of 19 cells have audio — 9 with their own recording, 0 borrowing one from an identically pronounced syllable. 10 have none yet.
Where the reading differs from the spelling
- 괴 is read [괴/궤] and romanized goe.
- 꾀 is read [꾀/꿰] and romanized kkoe.
- 뇌 is read [뇌/눼] and romanized noe.
- 되 is read [되/뒈] and romanized doe.
- 뙤 is read [뙤/뛔] and romanized ttoe.
- 뢰 is read [뢰/뤠] and romanized roe.
- 뫼 is read [뫼/뭬] and romanized moe.
- 뵈 is read [뵈/붸] and romanized boe.
- 뾔 is read [뾔/쀄] and romanized ppoe.
- 쇠 is read [쇠/쉐] and romanized soe.
- 쐬 is read [쐬/쒜] and romanized ssoe.
- 외 is read [외/웨] and romanized oe.
- 죄 is read [죄/줴] and romanized joe.
- 쬐 is read [쬐/쮀] and romanized jjoe.
- 최 is read [최/췌] and romanized choe.
- 쾨 is read [쾨/퀘] and romanized koe.
- 퇴 is read [퇴/퉤] and romanized toe.
- 푀 is read [푀/풰] and romanized poe.
- 회 is read [회/훼] and romanized hoe.
See the articles that decide this.
Letters it gets confused with
All three are pronounced [we] by most speakers today, but the standard separates them: ㅚ is a monophthong [ø], ㅙ is [wɛ] and ㅞ is [we]. Article 4 allows ㅚ to be read as a diphthong too, which is why the ㅚ cells on this site show two readings.
In real speech: In everyday speech the three are hard to tell apart. Spelling still distinguishes them, so they are worth recognising by sight even if not by ear.
Words that use ㅚ
뇌
brain
쇠고기
beef
- 괴물monster
- 쇠iron
- 외국인foreigner
- 외톨이loner
- 외할머니maternal grandmother
- 죄송해요sorry
Questions people ask
- How do you pronounce ㅚ? +
- ㅚ is /ø/, also pronounced [we]. In English terms it is the German ö; the standard also allows the we of wet. It never appears on its own in writing — it always sits inside a syllable block with a consonant.
- How many strokes does ㅚ have? +
- 3. They are written top to bottom and left to right, the same order used for every Korean letter.
- Why is 괴 not read the way it is written? +
- 괴 is pronounced [괴/궤]. 19 of the cells in this set read differently from how they are written. The rules page quotes the article that decides it.