Korean pronunciation is vastly different from English, and it takes a lot of practice to be able to pronounce words correctly. The biggest mistake you can make is to assume that the pronunciation of a Korean letter is identical to the pronunciation of that letter’s Romanization in English. This is simply not the case and is a mistake that virtually all new learners of Korean make.
I discuss different aspects of Korean pronunciation in this lesson. I will use this lesson to discuss aspects of Korean pronunciation that are not intuitive to an English speaker. I’ve divided this lesson into different sections
General Pronunciation and the Movement of Sounds to Other Syllables
Listen to some of the syllables in sequence so you can get a feel for what they should sound like:
In addition to the syllables above, continue listening to the audio files in Lesson 1 and Lesson 2 (Unit 0) in the tables presented in those lessons.
Korean pronunciation is entirely different in structure compared to English pronunciation. You may have noticed this from listening to the recording files above. In English, whenever a word ends in a consonant, we always make a little sound after saying that last letter. It is very faint and difficult to hear for a person with a ‘non-Korean ear’ to hear. But try to hear the difference.
In English, if I were to say “ship”, there is a tiny sound of breath following the ‘p’ when our lips open.
In English, if I were to say “dock”, there is a tiny sound of breath following the ‘ck’ when your throat opens.
In English, if I were to say “cod”, (or kod) there is a tiny sound of breath following the ‘d’ when your tongue is removed from the roof of your mouth.
In English, if I were to say “dock”, there is a tiny sound of breath following the ‘ck’ when your throat opens.
In English, if I were to say “cod”, (or kod) there is a tiny sound of breath following the ‘d’ when your tongue is removed from the roof of your mouth.
In Korean, they do not have this final ‘breath’ sound. This is called an “aspiration.” That is, the final letter in a Korean consonant is not aspirated. This is hard to understand at first to English speakers. Whatever position one’s mouth is in when they make the sound of a final consonant in a syllable – it stays like that. Listen to the following differences in English and Korean pronunciation of the same syllables:
However…
If a word has a consonant as its final sound, and the first letter on the following syllable is ‘ㅇ’ (meaning that the first sound is a vowel) the breath from the final consonant from the first syllable gets pronounced with the vowel from that syllable. It is confusing to write in a sentence, so I will show you an example:
If a word has a consonant as its final sound, and the first letter on the following syllable is ‘ㅇ’ (meaning that the first sound is a vowel) the breath from the final consonant from the first syllable gets pronounced with the vowel from that syllable. It is confusing to write in a sentence, so I will show you an example:
For example:
먹 in Korean is pronounced the same way as described earlier (i.e. by cancelling out the ‘last-breath’ after the ‘ㄱ’ in ‘먹.’ For example
먹 in Korean is pronounced the same way as described earlier (i.e. by cancelling out the ‘last-breath’ after the ‘ㄱ’ in ‘먹.’ For example
먹
If the following syllable is a consonant, nothing changes and the two syllables are pronounced as usual:
However, if the next syllable starts with a vowel the ‘breath’ after the ‘k’ sound is made along with this vowel. For example:
Technically, it sounds like:
머거
Note that it is not actually written like this, but only sounds like this.
Note that it is not actually written like this, but only sounds like this.
Also note that if these two syllables were pronounced separately (먹 and 어), this phenomenon would not happen.
먹 + 어 (pronounced separately)
먹 + 어 (pronounced separately)
The most confusing of this rule is when ㅅ or ㅆ are the last letters in a syllable. When either of these is the final letter of a syllable, they are NOT pronounced as ‘S.’ Instead, they are pronounced similar to a ‘D’ sound. The reason for this is the same as I described earlier, that is, Korean people don’t allow that ‘breath’ of air out of their mouth on a final consonant. As soon as one’s tongue touches their teeth when making the “S” sound, the sound stops and no breath is made after it.
Listen to the following syllables to train your ear:
싯, 했, 겠, 었, 았, 짓
싯, 했, 겠, 었, 았, 짓
But, just like 먹 and 어, if syllables ending in ㅅ or ㅆ connect to another syllable where the first sound is a vowel, that ㅅ or ㅆ is pronounced as S combined with the following vowel (I know, it is very confusing).
As with 먹다, if the following syllable starts with a consonant, it gets pronounced normally:
했다
했다
Explaining why different endings would come after a word (for example, 먹다 vs. 먹어 and 했다 vs. 했어) is something you will understand as you learn about Korean grammar. In Lesson 5 and Lesson 6 of Unit 1, you will be introduced to conjugation and when you would have to use these different pronunciation rules. For now, it is good enough to simply understand that this phenomenon occurs.
No Aspiration Sometimes Leads to Funny Sounding Syllables
In the previous section of this lesson, it was explained that the final letter in a Korean syllable is not aspirated. You saw how this causes the pronunciation of syllables to differ if the next syllable in a word begins with a consonant (먹다) or a vowel (먹어).
Try pronouncing the word “먹다” again.
Try it again.
Try it again. As you pronounce it, think about the movement of your tongue from the ㄱ sound in “먹” to the ㄷ sound in “다.” There isn’t anything hindering or stopping this movement.
There are some combination of syllables where – when pronounced – the movement of one’s tongue is not so easy. In these cases, it is hard to move one’s tongue fast enough to make the appropriate sound. Most (but not all) of these occur when the letter ㄹ is involved. For example, try pronouncing the syllable “복.” Now, try pronouncing the syllable “리.” Pronounced separated, they sound like this:
복 + 리 (pronounced separately)
If those two syllables are pronounced together (which would happen in the word “복리”), one’s tongue cannot move immediately from the ㄱ sound to the ㄹ sound. Therefore, the two syllables pronounced together sound like this:
복리 (pronounced together)
Notice that the ㄹ sound isn’t distinct. It sounds more like an ㄴ sound. Let’s discuss why this phenomenon occurs. As mentioned earlier in this lesson, the ㄱ sound is not aspirated. Therefore, immediately after the unaspirated ㄱ sound, one must pronounce the ㄹ sound. Without an aspiration (i.e. without a breath), there is no time for one’s tongue to move to correctly pronounce the ㄹ sound.
There are many words that are like this. There is no use in listing all of them, because that would over-stress you into thinking that memorizing all of this is important. The ideas that I am presenting in this section (and in this lesson in general) are things that you should keep in mind, but don’t need to specifically memorize yet. Your pronunciation of Korean words as a beginner will inevitably be off – even for words where the pronunciation is relatively straightforward.
I have gone through the list of vocabulary presented in every lesson in Unit 1 and Unit 2. There are a total of 1850 words in these two Units. From all of these words, I found twenty-two words that exhibit this phenomenon (the fact that only 22 of 1850 words have this might be an indication of how much attention you should give to it at this stage. Again, be aware of it, but don’t worry about it too much as an absolute beginner).
I have separated these words into groups. The words in each group have the same respective letters as the final consonant in one syllable and the first consonant in the next syllable. For example, in the first section, all of the words (somewhere in the word) have a syllable where the final consonant is ㅇ, and the first consonant of the next syllable is ㄹ:
Words where one syllable ends in ㅇ and the next syllable starts with ㄹIn these words, the ㄹ sound changes to a ㄴ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:
정류장 (pronounced as 정뉴장)
종류 (pronounced as 종뉴)
대통령 (pronounced as 대통녕)
등록 (pronounced as 등녹)
능력 (pronounced as 능녁)
명령 (pronounced as 명녕)
입장료 (pronounced as 입장뇨)
동료 (pronounced as 동뇨)
종류 (pronounced as 종뉴)
대통령 (pronounced as 대통녕)
등록 (pronounced as 등녹)
능력 (pronounced as 능녁)
명령 (pronounced as 명녕)
입장료 (pronounced as 입장뇨)
동료 (pronounced as 동뇨)
Words where one syllable ends in ㄴ and the next syllable starts with ㄹIn these words, the ㄴ sound changes to a ㄹ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:
안락 (pronounced as 알락)
훈련 (pronounced as 훌련)
관련 (pronounced as 괄련)
관리비 (pronounced as 괄리비)
권력 (pronounced as 궐력)
훈련 (pronounced as 훌련)
관련 (pronounced as 괄련)
관리비 (pronounced as 괄리비)
권력 (pronounced as 궐력)
Words where one syllable ends in ㄱ and the next syllable starts with ㄹIn these words, the ㄱ sound changes to a ㅇ sound and the ㄹ sound changes to an ㄴ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:
Words where one syllable ends in ㅁ and the next syllable starts with ㄹIn these words, the ㄹ sound changes to a ㄴ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:
음료수 (pronounced as 음뇨수)
Words where one syllable ends in ㅍ and the next syllable starts with ㄴIn these words, the ㅍ sound changes to a ㅁ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:
앞니 (pronounced as 암니)
Words where one syllable ends in ㅌ and the next syllable starts with ㄴIn these words, the ㅌ sound changes to a ㄴ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:
Words where one syllable ends in ㄱ and the next syllable starts with ㅁIn these words, the ㄱ sound changes to a ㅇ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:
Words where one syllable ends in ㅊ and the next syllable starts with ㅁIn these words, the ㅊ sound changes to a ㄴ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:
몇몇 (pronounced as 면멷)
(Notice that the second “ㅊ” also doesn’t sound like ㅊ. It sounds like “ㄷ” because ㅊ is not aspirated)
Words where one syllable ends in ㅅIf a syllable ends in ㅅ, it’s possible that it might be a “Middle ㅅ.” This is a very difficult concept, and is discussed in detail in Lesson 131.
The Pronunciation of ~습니다 or ~ㅂ니다
In Lesson 6, you will be introduced to politeness in Korean. One way to make a sentence polite, is to add ~습니다 or ~ㅂ니다 to the end of a verb or adjective (the distinction between the two will be made in that lesson). When saying ~습니다 or ~ㅂ니다, the ㅂ sound changes to an ㅁ sound. For example: