Korean Simple Consonants

ㄱ	ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄹ	ㅁ	ㅂ	ㅅ
[g/k] Gap	[n] Name	[d/t] Dynamite	[l/r] Loop/Rope	[m] Mother	[b/p] Bill	[s] Super
ㅇ	ㅈ	ㅊ	ㅋ	ㅌ	ㅍ	ㅎ
[ng] Length	[j] Junction	[ch] Change	[k] King	[t] Tea	[p] Pencil	[h] Hut

💻Let’s speak together!

🎨Before we learn…

The consonants in Hangul are designed to mimic the shape of the articulatory organs when producing their respective sounds. 

ㅁ – Shape of the mouth

ㄴ – Shape of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth

ㄱ – Shape of the root of the tongue blocking the throat

ㅅ – Shape of the teeth

ㅇ – Shape of the throat

Sounds produced from the same articulatory organs but with different phonemic characteristics are created according to the principle of adding strokes, called the ‘principle of gaheuk(adding lines)’.

They are formed as follows:

ㄱ ⇒ ㅋ

ㄴ ⇒ ㄷ ㅌ ㄹ

ㅁ ⇒ ㅂ ㅍ

ㅅ ⇒ ㅈ ㅊ

ㅇ ⇒ ㅎ

*맞춤 한국어1 p.18

 

🎃Writing Orders

① ￣ + ㅣ = ㄱ

② ㅣ +  ㅡ = ㄴ

③ ￣ + ㅣ + ㅡ = ㄷ

④ ㄱ + ㅡ + ㄴ = ㄹ

⑤ ㅣ + ㄱ + ㅡ = ㅁ

⑥ ㅣ+ ㅣ + ￣ + ㅡ = ㅂ

⑦  ／ + ＼ = ㅅ

⑧ ㅇ

⑨ ＞ + ＼ = ㅈ

⑩ ＇+ ㅈ = ㅊ

⑪ ㄱ + ㅡ = ㅋ

⑫ ￣ + ㅡ + ㄴ = ㅌ

⑬ ￣ + ㅣ + ㅣ + ㅡ = ㅍ

⑭ ＇+ ㅡ + ㅇ = ㅎ

 

💎 Tips!

① Vowels can independently form syllables, but consonants cannot form syllables independently.

Ex)

Vowel “ㅏ” [ a ]  (Can sound independently)

Consonant “ㄱ” (Cannot form syllable independently)

② Combination

*ㄱ + ㅎ = ㅋ   

Ex) 북한[부칸bookkan]

In the word “북한” (North Korea), when the final consonant “ㄱ” of “북” meets the initial consonant “ㅎ” of the following syllable “한,” it produces the pronunciation “ㅋ.”

* ㄷ + ㅎ = ㅌ    

Ex) 좋다[조타jo:ta]

In the word “좋다” (to be good), similarly, when the final consonant “ㅎ” of “좋” meets the initial consonant “ㄷ” of the following syllable, it produces the pronunciation “ㅌ.”

*ㅂ + ㅎ = ㅍ

Ex) 답하다[다파다da:pada] (To answer)

*ㅈ + ㅎ = ㅊ

Ex) 쌓지 않다. [싸치 안타 SSachi anta](Not to pile up)

 

💢 Be Careful!

‘ㄹ’ is NOT as same as “R/L” in english!

Kelly was good at grammar and had a wide vocabulary in Korean. However, she had a lot of concerns about the “ㄹ” pronunciation.

She consistently struggled with pronouncing “ㄹ”. This issue with “ㄹ” pronunciation is common among speakers of American English.

I found the reason why. When she first started learning Korean, she learned to pronounce “ㄹ” as an L sound. Since she didn’t initially focus much on pronunciation while learning Korean, she started pronouncing all “ㄹ” sounds as [L]. As time went, it became familiar to her and eventually turned into a habit.

So, What should we do?

One day, while coincidentally watching Spanish videos, I came across a video that was helpful for “ㄹ” pronunciation.

In Spanish, “pero” means “but” in English.

However, the interesting point here is that when pronouncing “pero,” the [ro] sound is very similar to the Korean “ㄹ” pronunciation.

It doesn’t require rolling the tongue like the American ‘R’ sound, nor does it position the tongue under like the ‘L’ sound.

You simply move the tongue downward from above.

Unlike Korean, Spanish is one of the foreign languages widely learned among Americans. What amazed me was that after showing the Spanish “pero” video, Kelly was able to pronounce “ㄹ” much more smoothly and accurately.

I never expected there would be such a noticeable improvement for her in just one day.

The Korean “ㄹ” pronunciation can generally be divided into two types.

The first type is when it is pronounced with the tongue from top to bottom, as in words like “라면(Ramen)” and “그림(Paint)”. The second type is when it is used as a final consonant, as in words like “알다(To know)”, “글씨(Handwriting)”, and “댓글(Comment)”.

Although the Korean “ㄹ” sound is closer to the English L than the R sound, the position of the tongue is very different. In English, the L sound is produced with the tongue moving up from below, whereas in Korean, the tongue just touches the roof of the mouth.