Korean Pronunciation: Learn Korean Vowels & Consonants

3koreanclassNEW2Ah, so you want to sound like a native Korean speaker do you? Well, pronunciation is the first place to start! There are only two rules to mastering Korean pronunciation…

Hey, if you REALLY want to learn & speak Korean with a full learning system + 1,000s of Audio & Video lessons by teachers – Sign up at KoreanClass101 (click here) and start learning! I recommend them as a teacher and a learner.

As you read, you can listen to this free KoreanClass101 lesson about pronunciation. Just press the black play button. Visit them for more if you care for more!

  • Pronunciation Series – 1. Comparing English and Korean Consonants

2 Rules for Korean Pronunciation

  1. First, master the pronunciation of 24 basic Korean letters
    1. This means you learn the proper pronunciation of vowels and consonants.
  2. Next, know that each syllable in Korean is pronounced for the same length

1) 1st rule: master the pronunciation of 24 basic Korean letters. 

We’ll break this into two parts to make life easier.

A) Korean consonants pronunciation. 

Consonant LetterSound
G
N
D
R/L
M
B
S
silent if at beginning of syllable, NG if at ending.
J
CH
K
T
P
H

B) Korean Vowel Pronunciation

Vowel LetterSoundSounds like
aA in Car
yaYa in Yard
eoO in Song
yeoYo in Yonder
oO in Rome
yoYo as in just Yo
uOO as in Boob
yuYu as in You
euLike OO in Good
eLike EE in Meet

Now, to bring these all together, here’s a complete Hangul Reference chart.

As you can see, when it comes to combinations, each syllable starts with a consonant (the blue characters on top) and ends with a vowel (the yellow characters on the right). And yes, vowels by themselves can happen too.

Korean pronunciation chart

So, for example, if we were to take the first one in the upper left hand corner:

  • ㄱㅏ – it creates the sound “Ga”

The one below it?

  • ㄱㅑ – it’s pronounced as “Gya”

And so on. Easy enough right? All you have to do is memorize them and the combinations won’t be too hard to master.

Use these Korean pronunciation charts a reference. Or, check out the video lesson to actually hear Korean pronunciation at the link below. But first… there’s a second, very important rule about Korean pronunciation.

2) 2nd Rule: Each syllable in Korean is pronounced for the same length with equal stress.

Before we go any further, say the word camera out loud.

How does it sound like?

If you’re a typical American English speaker, you’ll say it as “Caa-mer-a.” Most of the stress is on the “Ca” and the least is on the “a.” When it comes to Korean pronunciation, the syllables in camera are pronounced with equal stress for the same length of time.

  • Ca-Me-Ra
  • 카(ka) 메(me) 라(Ra)
  • So the way you’d say it would be “Kah-Meh-Rah.”

That’s it. These are the top 2 basic rules you need to know about Korean pronunciation. Is this perfection?  Are you a master speaker now? Aw, hell no. There’s more you need to learn but rest assured, one step at a time; you’ll get there soon enough if you’re consistent!

– The Main Junkie

P.S. I highly recommend this for Korean learners. If you REALLY want to learn to Korean with effective lessons by real teachers – Sign up for free at KoreanClass101 (click here) and start learning!3koreanclassNEW2


 

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Stephanie

Wow this is better then the YouTube videos Honestly, great job Now it’s a request but it’ll be good practice if you put Korea words for us to practice ‍♀️

Jenn hazel fameronag

It’s good I learned many
Cheonman-eo