Congratulations! We’ve now finished learning every basic consonant and vowel, every double consonant and strong consonant, and now every diphthong. In fact, there are no more letters left to learn in 한글. What remains are rules regarding how sounds are pronounced. Let me explain what that means.
Take this English sentence: "Nice to meet you."
First say it slowly: "Nice to meet you."
Next, say it at a normal speed: "Nice t’ mee’chu."
The individual words haven’t changed, but their sounds do because of their relationship to other sounds (for example, the ‘t’ in "meet" coming before the ‘y’ in "you"). A similar thing happens in Korean. Of course, these changes occurred only to make the words easier to pronounce, just like in English. Imagine having to say "Nice to meet you," while pronouncing each individual word accurately, every time you wanted to say it. Although there are many rules for sound changes in Korean, they are for the good of everyone. Learning the rules for sound changes as thoroughly as possible will greatly improve your speaking and understanding.
This section will introduce only basic sound change rules that are necessary to say individual syllables. For a complete explanation of sound change rules, please read through Appendix C after completing this section (before beginning Chapter 1).
As you learn sound change rules, I recommend reading each example out loud as practice. Don’t worry about memorizing any of the words, as they’re only to demonstrate the rules when pronouncing 한글.
Let’s go over the rules for sound changes in Korean.
Bottom Consonants
We’ve actually already been working with syllables that have bottom consonants. Any syllable with three or more letters contains one or two bottom consonants.
A bottom consonant is simply a consonant on the bottom of a syllable. For the syllable 강, it’s ㅇ. And for the syllable 삶, they are ㄹ and ㅁ.
Korean has a special word for these bottom consonants – 받침, which literally means "support." Knowing what a syllable’s 받침 is will help you know how to pronounce it in a sentence.
You might be thinking, "But I already know how to pronounce 강 and 삶. We learned that ㅇ is pronounced like "ng" at the end of a syllable, so 강 is just 강. And 삶 is pronounced 삼." Well, you’re right. 강 is just 강, and 삶 is pronounced 삼. Most rules for sound changes only apply when syllables are combined together with others in a sentence, just like the individual words in "Nice to meet you" do not change when pronounced individually.
But sometimes even on their own, we need sound change rules to pronounce certain syllables – specifically, syllables with bottom consonants.
낮
This is the word for "day." But how would you pronounce it? You couldn’t say it like "나즈" because that would be adding in an additional vowel, and there is no vowel at the end – its 받침 is simply ㅈ, which has no sound on its own without a vowel. We need rules to dictate how to pronounce words like these.
Let’s take a look at our first rule for pronouncing 받침.
1. ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㄷ, ㅌ, ㅎ
This rule applies to syllables ending in any of the consonants ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㄷ, ㅌ, and ㅎ.
Whenever a syllable’s 받침 is one of the above consonants, and the syllable is at the end of a word or phrase (or said on its own), it will be pronounced as if it were a ㄷ.
Spelling → Pronunciation
낮 → 낟
갖 → 갇
핫 → 핟
멧 → 멛
못 → 몯
있 → 읻
갔 → 갇
낯 → 낟
갗 → 갇
밭 → 받
맡 → 맏
히읗 → 히읃
You’ll often find ㅅ at the end of words that were imported into Korean from other languages, especially English. One example is the word 인터넷 for "internet." When writing English words that end in ‘t’ into Korean, remember to use ㅅ at the end to represent the final sound, instead of another letter such as ㄷ.
Advanced Notes:
ㅉ and ㄸ are absent from this rule because there are no syllables in Korean that end with these letters at the bottom.
2. ㄱ, ㄲ, ㅋ
Any of these three consonants (ㄱ, ㄲ, and ㅋ) are simply pronounced as ㄱ at the end of a syllable.
Spelling → Pronunciation
박 → 박
각 → 각
싹 → 싹
부엌 → 부억
닭* → 닥*
깎 → 깍
볶 → 복
묶 → 묵
*Review how to pronounce syllables ending in ㄺ.
Advanced Notes:
Syllables ending in ㅋ are quite rare (although 부엌 is a common word), while syllables ending in ㄱ are the most common.
3. ㅂ and ㅍ
Both of these two consonants ( ㅂ and ㅍ) are pronounced as ㅂ at the end of a syllable.
Spelling → Pronunciation
갑 → 갑
합 → 합
업 → 업
잎 → 입
갚 → 갑
숲 → 숩
Advanced Notes:
ㅃ is absent from this list because there are no syllables in the Korean language that end with it on the bottom.
4. ㅁ, ㄴ, ㅇ, ㄹ
This is an easy rule. These four consonants are all pronounced like normal at the end of a syllable.
Spelling → Pronunciation
감 → 감
움 → 움
혼 → 혼
난 → 난
멍 → 멍
옹 → 옹
쌀 → 쌀
말 → 말
However, remember that 받침 sounds will still flow through the consonant ㅇ as we learned previously.
Spelling → Pronunciation
낫 → 낟
낫이 → 나시
낮 → 낟
낮에 → 나제
있 → 읻
있어 → 이써
낯 → 낟
낯이 → 나치
믿 → 믿
믿어 → 미더
맡 → 맏
맡아 → 마타
Make sure you feel comfortable with each of these rules before moving on to our first Korean lesson. To see all of the letters we’ve learned in one place, look at the chart in Appendix B in the back of this book. Also, make sure to check out the expanded sound change rules in Appendix C.
It’s much easier, and will save you a lot of time, to learn how to read 한글 properly now than to have to go back and fix your own pronunciation later. If possible, study these rules with flashcards and have them memorized, and then move onto the next section. I’ll wait here patiently until you’re ready to move on.