부산
Busan · official romanization Busan
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The letters of each block, then the block they build. Tap a play button to hear it.
Red first consonantBlue vowelBlack final consonant (batchim)
Block 1: 부 [bu]
2 letters
First consonant
비읍 bieup
[b]Vowel
[u]u as in “moon”
Built block · vowel underneath
ㅂ + ㅜ =
부
Block 2: 산 [san]
3 letters
First consonant
시옷 siot
[s]Vowel
[a]a as in “father”
Final (batchim)
니은 nieun
[n]plain n
Built block · vowel on the right, final at the bottom
ㅅ + ㅏ + ㄴ =
산
All blocks together
부 + 산 =
부산
Spelling vs. sound
Busan is the official romanization: 부 = bu, 산 = san. Older maps and books spell it Pusan, from the romanization used before 2000, because ㅂ at the start of a word sounds somewhere between p and b to English ears.
Say it bu-san, two even beats. ㅂ at the start is a soft, unaspirated b, ㅜ is the “oo” in “moon”, ㅅ is an s, ㅏ is the “a” in “father”, and ㄴ is a plain n. Not “byoo-san”: 부 is just boo.
부산 is Korea's second-largest city and its biggest port, on the southeast coast. Unlike 서울, the name has hanja behind it: 釜 (bu, “cauldron”) and 山 (san, “mountain”). 산 means “mountain” on its own too, as in 남산 (Namsan), the hill with the tower in Seoul.
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