Lesson Notes

Grammar

Lesson 8: Reviewing Basic Vowels and Consonants

1. Consonant ㄱ (기역)

 ㄱ sounds like the "G" in "Green."

 When it's located at the beginning of a word, it sounds more like
ㅋ (키읔)
 When it's located in the middle of words, it sounds like G.

2. Consonants ㄷ (디읃), ㅂ(비읍),  ㅈ(지읒) and ㄹ(리을)

 Same rule; Hard sound at the beginning of words, soft sound in

the middle.

3. Aspirated Consonants: ㅋ(키읔), ㅌ(티읕). ㅍ(피읖)

Read unaspirated consonants ㄱ, ㄷ, and ㅍ as you read ㅎ.

자 plus 하 equals 차; 차지
다 plus 하 equals 타; 타다
부 plus 후 equals 푸; 포부
Lesson Transcript
You just made it to an important milestone: you now know all of the
characters in written Korean. The rules for combining them and quirks
about the pronunciation is the focus of future lessons, but for now,
let’s take a break from new things and make sure you’ve got a solid
foundation to build on!

There are a few Korean consonants that sound different depending on

their location in the word. Let’s review those consonants!

Let's talk about the consonant 기역 first. We learned that it sounds like
g of green. But if the consonant ㄱ is located at the beginning of a
word, it sounds more like ㅋ(크).

Take a look at an example.

Do you remember the verb 가요(gayo) meaning 'I go'?

In this word, ㄱ is located at the beginning of the word, so it’s not

pronounced “gayo”, it’s 카요(kayo). It’s almost the same as the
consonant ㅋ.

However, when 기역 is located in the middle of words, it sounds almost

exactly like the G of Green. Let's listen to the example. 누가/ 누.. 가.. In
this word, 기역 is located in the middle of the word, so it sounds softer.

You can find the same pronunciation rules in the consonants ㄷ, ㅂ, ㅈ

and ㄹ. Hard sound at the beginning of words, soft sound in the middle.

Let's check the examples for each consonant.

다리 (dari / bridge) and 수도 (sudo / capital)

다리...수도...다리...수도...

바지 (baji / pants) and 바보 (babo / fool)

바지...바보...바지...바보...

지구 (jigu / earth) and 휴지 (huji / toilet paper)

지구...휴지...지구...휴지...

라디오 (radio / radio) and 도로 (doro / streets)

라디오...도로...라디오...도로...
And we’ll return to 기역 once more...

가요 (gayo / I go ) and 누가(nuga / who)

가요...누가...가요...누가...

This difference is tricky, but it will really help your pronunciation

sound natural!

Do you know what an aspirated consonant is? The fact is, Korean is
full of them...and you already know them! An aspirated sound is one
that’s pronounced with a puff of breath. I'll give you a tip to say the
aspirated consonants you already know correctly.

Let’s look at 흐 and 으. When you say 흐, you can feel that you are
breathing out the the strong burst of air. That’s because this sound is
aspirated. 으 is unaspirated -- “으” -- nothing comes out!

Consonants ㄱ, ㅈ, ㄷ, and ㅂ are all unaspirated, but they each have a

pair of aspired sounds.

If you read ㄱ as you say ㅎ -- that is, aspirated -- “ㅋ” you can hear that
the sound becomes a stronger, K sound. That's the pronunciation of ㅋ,
the first aspirated consonant.

Let's say ㅎ first. Think about how much air is coming out of your
mouth when you do this. Then say ㄱ with the same amount of air. 흐.
크. 흐. 크. Great job!

Let's practice with a word. 크기. (keugi / size) 크.기. 크기.

You can find the same pronunciation rule in the other consonants.

자 plus 하 equals 차

차지

다 plus 하 equals 타

타다

부 plus 후 equals 푸

포부

One last point today!

Here is the chart of 140 sound combinations you can recognize by this
point. You should spend some time with this chart before moving on to
the next lesson. But for now, I’m going to give you a pop quiz! Fifteen
questions -- I show you a character and you tell me how to read it. Try
to answer within three seconds. Ready?

1. 도

2. 쿄

3. 뮤

4. 뱌

5. 스

6. 퓨

7. 하

8. 탸

9. 라

10. 여

11. 주

12. 처

13. 기

14. 려

15. 누

How did you do?

If you’re having a hard time remembering some of the characters, don’t

forget to practice writing them too! Get some graph paper and try to
write all 140 combinations of consonant and vowel from memory.
There may be some gaps in what you’re able to remember at first, but
with this technique you can isolate the problems and keep trying until
you’re able to write them all. And once you can write the characters,
reading will become no problem at all!
Already an expert at these characters? Great! There’s plenty more to
learn and we’re going to get into it in the very next lesson. See you on
the next Hana Hana Hangul! 여러분 다음에 또 만나요.