Korean pronunciation

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Resources for further reading:

• Learning Korean online
• The top ten hacks to fast-tracking your Korean

A Word About Korean Pronunciation

Before we get started, let's talk a bit about Korean pronunciation.

Intonation

The first thing you need to know is that there are no tones in Korean as there are in Chinese and some other Asian languages. Along with that, there is no intonation as there is in most other languages. Every syllable is stressed the same way. At first it may seem monotone, but just keep in mind that all syllables have the same stress.

Syllable blocks

You will notice that letters come in groups that form a syllable. These groups (sometimes called "syllable blocks") always have at least two characters. There will never be letters alone by themselves.

The Korean writing system 한글 (Hangeul) is very systematic, which means it is very easy to learn! Make sure you check out the Writing lessons to get familiar with 한글 (Hangeul). There are also lessons on how to write them correctly in syllable blocks.

Vowels

Vowel sounds are consistent. There are not vowels that change sounds depending on which consonants they are with. Vowels generally make the exact same sound no matter where they are in a word.

Pronouncing Korean

Korean writing resembles Chinese or Japanese at first glance, but unlike those languages, Korean doesn't use thousands of symbols to represent sounds and ideas. It actually uses an alphabet with a few symbols to represent its sounds - just like English.

Unlike English, these symbols are arranged in blocks instead of in straight lines, but there's nothing complicated about it. In fact, Korean writing was developed with the goal of increasing literacy, so it was very important for it to be easy to learn.

Vowels

Officially, Korean has 21 vowel letters, but we can say it only has 8 basic vowels. The rest of the vowel letters are just modifications or combinations of these.

Basic Vowels

There are 8 basic vowels in Korean.

Note that ㅐ (ae) used to be pronounced like the a in mat, but these days most Korean speakers will just pronounce it as ㅔ (e).

Y Vowels

The "Y group" of vowel letters are actually two sounds in one. They are made by combining "y" with the basic vowels. They are written like normal vowels, except that they have an additional stroke.

There are 6 of these:

The last of these is not a typo. Most Koreans pronounced ㅒ (yae) and ㅖ (ye) in the same way.

The W Vowels

"W vowel" letters don't have a different shape like the "Y vowels." They're made by combining ㅗ (o) or ㅜ (oo) with another vowel. There are 6 of these:

Again, the last three aren't mistakes. Most Koreans pronounce these in the exactly same way, although they may have been pronounced differently in the past or even in certain dialects today.

There is one last vowel letter in Korean which doesn't fit into the other categories. It is ㅢ (ui), which is pronounced as the u of full and the ee in meet blended together.

Consonants

Korean has 19 consonant letters, but as we will see, some of these are similar to others in appearance and sound, so we can actually split them up into three groups.

Basic Consonants

There are 10 basic consonant letters in Korean: ㅂ (b), ㄱ (g), ㄷ (d), ㅈ (j), ㅁ (m), ㄴ (n), ㅅ (s), ㅇ (silent/ng), ㄹ (r/l), ㅎ (h).

"Double" Consonants

Aside from the basic consonant letters, there are also 5 "double" consonant letters. In writing, they are just some of the basic consonants written double. Their sound is also similar, except they are pronounced more tightly than the basic forms.

This may be a little confusing, so let's consider an example. In English, you might pronounce certain sounds differently when you want to stress a word. For example, suppose you asked your little brother to "bring me a bag of bread" but he mishears your sentence asks "you want a half a head?" Feeling annoyed, you might say, with emphasis "a BBag of BBread," which he would surely understand.

In English, the meaning of the word is not changed when you emphasize this sound. In Korean, though, putting tight emphasis on some consonants could make it a different word altogether, since these sounds are considered to be completely different consonants.

The five double consonant letters are: ㅃ (bb), ㄲ (kk), ㅉ (jj), ㄸ (dd), and ㅆ (ss).

Hard consonants

The hard consonant letters (also called aspirated consonant letters) are, again, based on certain basic consonant letters, so they look similar. In this case, hard consonants are close in pronunciation to the basic versions except that they are said with a hard puff of air.

English speakers make similar sounds, but again, they do not give the word a different meaning when they are used. For example, if someone's extreme obsession with saving money made you frustrated, you might say

"He's so cheap!"

This sound is used for special emphasis in English and does not change the meaning of the word, but in Korean, it is actually considered to be fundamentally different from the "soft," or unaspirated version.

There are 4 hard consonant letters: ㅋ (k), ㅍ (p),ㅊ (ch), ㅌ (t).

Assimilation

Except for a few easily-learned rules, Korean words are usually pronounced as they are written. If you know how to read the letters, then you'll generally be able to pronounce the word correctly.

Practice

Now that you know all the sounds of Korean, are you ready to try some basic combinations?

Here are some words combining the basic consonants and vowels you've learned today. Give it a go!