[tʰɛ.hjʌn ɾiː]

While I'm not overly particular about the pronunciation of my name, here's a brief guide for those who'd like to get it right.

• Tae is pronounced like "teh," as in the te of "technical" or "ten," and it rhymes with "meh." 

• For hyun, start with "yum," add an h at the beginning, and change m to n, all in one syllable.

• My surname Lee¹ can be pronounced like the English name "Lee."²

Thanks to a K-pop idol with the same given name, you can hear Google's take on its pronunciation here. Just a heads up—Google offers both British and American pronunciations of my Korean name, but not a Korean one!

For a Korean pronunciation, below is an AI-created version by CLOVA Dubbing of Naver (the Korean equivalent of Google):

¹ In Korean naming order, the surname comes before the given name.

² In Korean, this surname involves a light tapping sound ([ɾ], rather than the [l] sound suggested by the spelling Lee), which in modern South Korean usage is not pronounced at the beginning, leaving only the vowel sound [iː].

Go back to the previous page.