Oh, consonants. In English those are all of the letters that are not a, e, i, o and u. In Korean, they are so much more. Some of them have more than one pronounciation too! But don’t worry, we will take it step by step.
Some of the letters have different sounds when they are the “bachin”, or the final letter of a word. We will make these clear as we go along:
- ㄱ [goat] [Final Consonant: keep]
- ㄲ [an exaggerated gotcha!]
- ㄴ [never]
- ㄷ [dude] [Final Consonant: tea]
- ㄸ [Extra emphasis on the ‘d‘ like in dude]
- ㄹ [This is a combined r and l sound, so almost like trying to say rebel and level at the same time]
- ㅁ [mum]
- ㅂ [band] [Final Consonant: Pancake]
- ㅃ [An exaggerated ‘p‘ like in paniced]
- ㅅ [sir] [Final Consonant: tea]
- ㅆ [shhh!]
- ㅇ Silent, unless it’s a bachin, where it’s like running]
- ㅈ [jeep] [Final Consonant: tea]
- ㅉ [Exaggerated jjeep]
- ㅊ [cheap] [Final Consonant: tea]
- ㅋ [kekeke]
- ㅍ [pitty]
- ㅎ [hello]
- ㅌ [tea]
These can be combined with the vowels in order to make full words. We will go through the honey comb reading method next time. Which of these consonants is the hardest to pronounce? Let us know in the comments below!
