1. Hangeul (Alphabet) – Consonants

Cool Facts about Hangeul

1. Han-geul (한글) is the name of the Korean writing system: it is the name of Korean alphabet.
2. Han-geul (한글) is different from Han-gug-eo (한국어), the language including spoken and written.
3. The original scrip of Hangeul, ‘Hun-min-jeong-eum’ (훈민정음) was designated as UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 1997.
4. It was promulgated in 1446 by King Sejong the Great, the 4th king of the Joseon dynasty, who helped devise it.

CONSONANTS

• 14 single consonant letters + 5 double consonants
• A syllable always starts with a consonant

• Consonant shapes depict the speech organs used to produce their sounds:
  lips, tooth, tongue, and throat

ㄱ = /g/

– When you make the ‘g’ sound, back of your tongue touches the soft palate in the back of your mouth
– That tongue placement is represented in the shape of the consonant ㄱ

Unlike the English ‘g’ that vibrates before the sound is produced, Korean ㄱ is unvoiced: your vocal cords do not vibrate before you pronounce it. For this reason, Korean ㄱ may sound like it’s in between /g/ and /k/, but it’s not aspirated like /k/.

Pronunciation Guide to the Korean Consonants:

ㄴ = /n/

– When you make the ‘n’ sound, tip of your tongue touches the palate behind your upper teeth
– That tongue placement is represented in the shape of the consonant ㄴ

ㄹ : flap sound

– similar tongue placement with  ㄴ,ㄷ,ㅌ,ㄸ
– neither English /r/ or /l/
– flap sound: tongue flapping the roof of your mouth
– most similar in American English is ‘t’ or ‘d’ in between vowels: muddy, water, better
– Similar to ‘r’ in Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Finnish, Hindi, Armenian, Dutch, etc.
Corea, красивая, obrigada, etc.
– It’s most similar to Japanese ら り る れ ろ : これ, etc.

Click here to watch the pronunciation guide to ㄹ!

잠깐! WAIT!

Click to watch this cute music video of IU and Jay Park!

The lyrics 가나다라마바사 is how Korean children learn consonants with the first vowel ㅏ /a/: 가나다라마바사아자차카타파하. They used the first half of this as the lyrics. In my shorts, I added the second half to help you remember the consonants better!

ㅁ = /m/

– When you make the ‘m’ sound, you close your lips and open them, so the lip sounds start with the base consonant ㅁ, which represents the lips
– The lips sounds /b/, /p/, /m/ base on this lip shape ㅁ

ㅅ = /s/

– When you make the ‘s’ sound, the air hisses between your teeth and tongue behind your upper teeth
– That tongue placement is represented in the shape of the consonant ㅅ

Watch this part for ㅅ vs ㅆ pronunciation:

ㅇ = no sound or /ng/

1. When it’s at the beginning of a syllable like 아이유, 우유, 아이, 오이, etc.: no sound
   – it’s a place holder because Korean letters always must start with a consonant!
2. When it’s the last consonant of a syllable on the bottom like 강, 병, 엉망, etc.: /ng/ sound.

DO YOU NEED EXAMPLES AND DETAILS? WATCH THIS!