In this post about the Korean alphabet, I will be introducing the final consonant and how it is added to a syllable. Up to now, we’ve only been looking at syllables that end in a vowel. The final consonant is the last thing added to the syllable block.
But before we continue, let’s first review what we have learned so far.
Let’s do a quick review
You should now be familiar with all the characters in the Korean alphabet, Hangul:
Korean Consonants (14 + 5)
Basic Consonants: ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ
Double Consonants: ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ
Korean Vowels (10 + 11)
Basic Vowels: ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ
Complex Vowels: ㅐ ㅔ ㅒ ㅖ
Compound Vowels: ㅘ ㅚ ㅙ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅢ
Reminder About Korean Vowels
- Vowel letters are built from vertical and horizontal strokes.
- When there are two shorter lines attached to the longer line (ㅑ ㅕ ㅛ ㅠ ㅒ ㅖ), the vowels will begin with a “y” sound like the words “yes” or “yak.”
- ㅘ, ㅙ, ㅝ, and ㅞ begin with a w-like glide. ㅚ and ㅟ may be pronounced as single vowels or as we/wi-like diphthongs.
- ㅢ is romanized ui. Its pronunciation depends on position and function; it does not have a close English equivalent.
Reminder About Korean Consonants
Some Korean consonants contrast in three types of sounds: plain, aspirated, and tense. In the table below, I will use the vowel ㅏ [ah] with all the consonants so you can read them out loud.
ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, and ㅈ have aspirated and tense counterparts; ㅅ contrasts with tense ㅆ. ㄴ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅇ, and ㅎ do not form these three-way sets. Initial ㅇ is silent, and ㅎ is not an aspirated ㅇ.
| Plain | Aspirated | Tense |
|---|---|---|
| 가 | 카 | 까 |
| 다 | 타 | 따 |
| 바 | 파 | 빠 |
| 사 | — | 싸 |
| 자 | 차 | 짜 |
You will need to train your ears to hear the sound differences when listening, as well as pay close attention to the pronunciation differences when speaking.
가 (ga) — a plain consonant; its sound varies with position and is not exactly English g.
카 (ka) — an aspirated consonant, with a stronger puff of air.
까 (kka) — a tense consonant, with greater tension and little aspiration. English k after s can be a rough starting point, but it is not identical.
Repeat these three sounds over and over, paying attention to what your mouth is doing when you say them and what the differences are. Then apply the same concept to the rest of the consonants in the table.
I apologize if my explanations about pronunciation seem frivolous and repetitive. My goal is not to make you sound like a native, because the focus here is clear, intelligible pronunciation. Adults can still improve through listening and practice. But you still need to learn to distinguish between all the different sounds in Hangul in order to understand and to be understood when communicating.
For example, the word 사다 means “to buy,” whereas the word 싸다 means “to be cheap.” Can you see where someone could be completely misunderstood when the listener cannot hear the word clearly? You can expect similar emphasis on pronunciation in all of my future posts as well. Stick with me, and your pronunciation skills will be the envy of all of your Korean-learning friends!
In my experience, English speakers don’t seem to have as much trouble with the aspirated sounds; but they often have difficulty differentiating between plain and tense consonants. Just remember, practice makes perfect!
Let’s now talk about the final consonant. Finally!!
Final Consonants in Korean
Remember the three syllable blocks that we learned in the last post? They represent all the syllables that end with a vowel:
Syllable Blocks: Consonant + Vowel
Syllable Blocks: Consonant + Vowel + Final Consonant
As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, when a Korean syllable ends with a consonant, the consonant gets added to that syllable block at the bottom. The final consonant in a syllable is called 받침 (batchim; pronounced [받침]), which literally means “support from underneath.”
Let’s look at the English word “pencil” phonetically written in Korean. Written in Hangul, the word “pencil” will look like this: 펜슬.
Both syllables end with a consonant. The “n” (ㄴ) will be added at the bottom of the first syllable, and the “l” (ㄹ) will be added at the bottom of the second syllable. Here we have the next two syllable blocks:
I chose this word as an example because these two syllables are great examples of the next two types of syllable blocks:
The next syllable block represents a consonant + compound vowel + final consonant pattern. An example is the word 원 [won], which is the South Korean currency.
Syllable Blocks: Consonant + Vowel + 2 Final Consonants
A final position can contain a doubled letter, ㄲ or ㅆ, or a consonant cluster such as ㅄ, ㄶ, or ㄺ. These are different kinds of spelling, and their pronunciation depends on the following sound. Examples include:
밖 (bak) – means “outside.”
있어요 (isseoyo; [이써요]) — means “exists/is there” or “have,” depending on context.
없어요 (eopseoyo; [업써요]) — means “does not exist/is not there” or “do not have.”
괜찮아요 (gwaenchanayo; [괜차나요]) – means “it’s okay” or “I’m okay.”
흙 [heuk] – means “dirt” or “soil.”
The last pattern, with a compound vowel and a doubled final consonant, does occur. For example, 됐 in 됐어요 contains ㄷ + ㅙ + ㅆ. Do not treat this pattern as impossible or unused.
Hangul Wrap-up
You now know the main structures used to build Hangul syllable blocks. You do have to apply some additional pronunciation rules when you read words with two or more syllables or when you are reading a sentence, but we will cover that as we go.
Writing
One thing that I need to mention when writing Hangul is that the general direction is left to right and top to bottom, while each letter has its own stroke order.
If you want to practice writing Hangul as well as learn the proper sounds, there is a great app you can download to your mobile device. It is made by the Language Education Institute at Seoul National University. The app guides you through the proper stroke order and pronunciation and includes tests for you to see your progress.
Go ahead! Give it a try!
Typing
If you haven’t done it already, you should think about installing the Korean Hangul keyboard on your computer and your mobile devices.
On the common two-set Korean keyboard:
- The consonants are on the left half of the keyboard.
- The vowels are on the right half of the keyboard.
- The shift key will give you the five double consonants and two vowels ㅒ and ㅖ.
- You can get the compound vowels by consecutively typing the two vowels that make up the particular compound vowel you want.
Once you have mastered the keyboard, you will be able to use more study references online, such as the Naver Korean Dictionary that I have referenced before and to which I will be regularly referring for word pronunciation.
Word Practice
Now that we are able to read and write more words, let’s add some words to our vocabulary:
In the last post, we learned some words in the categories of people, body parts, and food. Now that we have learned how to add final consonants, we can make the lists more comprehensive (some words are repeated). But I will not overwhelm you with too many. We will learn more in future posts.
Immediate Family
| Korean | Revised Romanization | English |
|---|---|---|
| 엄마 | eomma | Mom |
| 아빠 | appa | Dad |
| 오빠 | oppa | Older brother (female speaker) |
| 언니 | eonni | Older sister (female speaker) |
| 누나 | nuna | Older sister (male speaker) |
| 동생 | dongsaeng | Younger sibling |
| 남동생 | namdongsaeng | Younger brother |
| 여동생 | yeodongsaeng | Younger sister |
Mini quiz: 동생 means younger sibling, 남동생 means younger brother, and 여동생 means younger sister. What meanings do 남- and 여- contribute?
남- and 여- contribute the meanings male and female in these compounds. They are not ordinary standalone adjectives here. 남자 means man, and 여자 means woman.
Body Parts
| Korean | Revised Romanization | English |
|---|---|---|
| 머리 | meori | Head |
| 얼굴 | eolgul | Face |
| 눈 | nun | Eye(s) |
| 코 | ko | Nose |
| 입 | ip | Mouth |
| 입술 | ipsul | Lips |
| 귀 | gwi | Ear(s) |
Listen to the pronunciation of 얼굴 in the dictionary. Romanization is a reading aid, not an exact English sound guide.
Fun Homework!
You might be familiar with the popular song “눈, 코, 입” (Eyes, Nose, Lips) by Taeyang (태양) from the K-pop group Big Bang. Listen to it and see if you can pick out those three words in the song.
I think that’s enough vocabulary to keep you busy until the next post. Happy practicing! Be sure to also practice reading and writing the entire Hangul by putting the consonants and vowels together in different combinations.
What’s Next?
I am excited to announce that we are now ready to advance into learning some grammar and additional vocabulary! In my next post, I will be introducing you to some simple sentences.
Leave a comment below to let me know what you think about the SNU LEI app. And as always, please don’t be shy to ask questions or give suggestions on this or any other posts I have written!