Hello Dreamers,
Welcome to the second installment of the Learn Hangeul series! In this post, we will be taking a look at the Korean consonants. I hope you have some paper and a pencil ready! Let’s begin!
| Name | Romanization | Pronunciation | |
| ㄱ | 기억(gieok) | g,k | Sound between k and g |
| ㄴ | 니은(nieun) | n | Sounds like the letter n |
| ㄷ | 디귿(digeut) | d,t | Sound between d and t |
| ㅁ | 미음(mieum) | m | Sounds like the letter m |
| ㅂ | 비읍(bieub) | p,b | Sound between b and p |
| ㅅ | 시옷(siot) | s | Sounds like the letter s, sh before a vowel |
| ㅈ | 지읒(jieut) | j | Sound between j and ch |
| ㅎ | 히읗(hieut) | h | Sounds like letter h |
| ㄹ | 리을(rieul) | r,l | Sound between r and l |
| ㅇ | 이응(ieung) | ng | silent, ng if bottom consonant |
| ㅋ | 키읔(kieuk) | k | Sounds like letter k |
| ㅌ | 티읕(tieut) | t | Sounds like letter t |
| ㅊ | 치읓(chieut) | ch | Sounds like ch in “chair” |
| ㅍ | 피읖(pieup) | p | Sounds like letter p |
| ㅃ | 쌍비읍(ssang-bieub) | bb,pp | Tense version of ㅂ |
| ㅉ | 쌍지읒(ssang-jieut) | jj | Tense version of ㅈ |
| ㄸ | 쌍디귿(ssang-digeut) | dd,tt | Tense version of ㄷ |
| ㄲ | 쌍기억(ssang-gieok) | gg,kk | Tense version of ㄱ |
| ㅆ | 쌍시옷(ssang-siot) | ss | Tense version of ㅅ |
Double Consonants:
Double consonants such as ㅃ or ㄲ are pronounced the same as the single consonants, but they sound more tense and have more of an emphasis on them than their single counterpart. For example, in the word “seesaw”, in American English there is more emphasis put on the second “s” compared to the first. So we can think of the first “s” represented by ㅅ and the second “s” represented by ㅆ.
Extra Resources:
Below is a great YouTube video by seemile Korean to explain Hangeul. The video consists of most of what is covered in this series, but to keep it relative to this post, it begins with the explanation of consonants. In the video, you will be able to hear the proper pronunciation of each consonant (and vowels if you watch all of it).
Hangeul TinyCards Deck: https://tiny.cards/decks/9gG9kcEh/hangeul
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