How to read and say Korean

The good news is that unlike Chinese, Korean is not tonal, so you don't need to worry about changing your pitch to get the meaning right. The bad news is that Korean has a few too many vowels for comfort and small distinctions between many consonants, so pronouncing things exactly right is still a bit of a challenge.

This phrasebook uses the Revised Romanization of Korean, which is overwhelmingly the most popular system in South Korea. The McCune-Reischauer romanization, used in North Korea and older South Korean texts, is noted in parentheses when different.

Vowels

Korean vowels can be short or long, but this is not indicated in writing and the distinction rarely if ever affects meaning. (example: 밤 bam, pronounced short means "night", pronounced long means "chestnut")

a ㅏ

like 'a' in "father"

o ㅗ

like 'o' in "tone"

eo (ŏ) ㅓ

like the "uh" in "lust"

u ㅜ

A low sound of "oo" as in "hoop". "woo" (Korean does not distinguish between "oo" and "woo").

eu (ŭ) ㅡ

like 'i' in "cousin", "dozen". Like the Turkish "ı", Polish "y" or Russian "ы". Kind of similar to the French "eu", but as a clearer, purer vowel sound.

i ㅣ

like the 'i' in "ship" (short) OR the 'ee' in "sheep" (long)

e ㅔ

like the 'e' in "bed"

ae ㅐ

similar to the "a" in "hand", "valve", "gas", and "can"

• note: ㅐ ae is now virtually identically pronounced as ㅔ e. Only rare words are unconsciously pronounced differently like they were half a century ago ("애", or "child" is one such remnant).

Common diphthongs

Korean has two standalone diphthongs:

oe ㅚ

like 'we' in 'west' (it used to be a different sound, now pronounced the same as ㅞ shown below)

ui ㅢ

like 'ŭ' + 'i'

In addition, most vowels can be modified by prefixing them with 'y' or 'w':

wa ㅘ

like 'wa' sound in "suave"

wae ㅙ

like 'wa' in "wagon". Some would argue there is virtually no difference anymore from ㅞ.

wo ㅝ

like 'wuh' sound in "wonder"

wi ㅟ

like "we" or 'e' in "she" with rounded lips

we ㅞ

like 'we' in "west"

ya ㅑ

like 'ya' in "yard"

yo ㅛ

like 'yo' in "yosemite" or "New York". Not like "yaw" or "yoke".

yeo (yŏ) ㅕ

like 'you' in "young"

yu ㅠ

like "you"

ye ㅖ

like 'ye' in "yes"

yae ㅒ

like 'ye' in "yes"; it has virtually assimiliated to be the same as 'ㅖ'

• to summarize the assimilated vowel diphthongs mentioned above,

ㅙ = ㅚ = ㅞ = 'we' in "west" ㅖ = ㅒ = 'ye' in "yes"

Consonants

Most Korean consonants come in three versions, namely unaspirated (without a puff of air), aspirated (with a puff of air) and tensed (stressed). Unaspirated consonants exist in English too, but never alone: compare the sound of 'p' in "pot" (aspirated) and "spot" (unaspirated). Many English speakers find it helpful to pronounce an imperceptible little "m" in front to 'stop' the puff. Tensing isn't really found in English, but pronouncing the consonant quick and hard is a reasonable substitute.

b (p) ㅂ

like 'p' in "spit" (unaspirated)

p (p', ph) ㅍ

like 'p' in "pig" (aspirated)

pp ㅃ

tensed 'p', like 'p' in "petit" in French

d (t) ㄷ

like 't' in "stab" (unaspirated)

t (t', th) ㅌ

like 't' in "top" (aspirated)

tt ㄸ

tensed 't'

g (k) ㄱ

like 'k' in "skate" (unaspirated)

k (k', k) ㅋ

like 'c' in "cat" (aspirated)

kk ㄲ

tensed 'k'

j (ch) ㅈ

like 'g' in "gin" (unaspirated)

ch (ch') ㅊ

like 'ch' in "chin" (aspirated). Usually pronounced as a light aspirated 't' as a final consonant

jj ㅉ

tensed 'j'

s ㅅ

like 's' in "soon", 'sh' before i or any "y" diphthong. Usually pronounced as a very light 't' as a final consonant

ss ㅆ

tensed 's', 's' in 'sea', never 'sh'

Standalone consonants:

n ㄴ

like 'n' in "nice"

m ㅁ

like 'm' in "mother"

l ㄹ

somewhere between 'l', 'r' and 'n', original sound is 'r' or 'l'. and 'n' sound occurs through initial consonant mutation.

h ㅎ

like 'h' in "help"

ng ㅇ

like 'ng' in "sing". Unpronounced (placeholder) when at the start of a syllable.

While the rules above are usually correct for the first consonant, those in the middle of a word are usually (but not always) voiced, which means that ㅂㄷㅈㄱ turn into English "b", "d", "j" and "k". The best rule of thumb is to concentrate on remembering that the first consonant is "special" and the rest are more or less as in English: bibimbap (비빔밥) is pronounced "pee-bim-bap", not "bee-bim-bap" or "p'ee-bim-bap". Also, if one syllable ends with a consonant other than "ng" and is immediately followed by one that starts with a vowel, similar to liaison in French, the final consonant of the first syllable is instead pronounced as if it were the initial consonant of the second syllable. If a syllable ends with "h" and is preceded by a syllable that ends in a consonant, the "h" is dropped, and the ending consonant of the previous syllable is pronounced as if it were the initial consonant of the second syllable.

The aspirated spellings with "h" are used only in the official North Korean orthography.

Loanwords

Native Korean words can end only in vowels or the consonants k, l, m, n, ng, p or t, and any words imported into Korean are shoehorned to fit this pattern, usually by padding any errant consonants with the vowel eu (ㅡ). For example, any English word ending in "t" will be pronounced as teu (트) in Korean, eg. Baeteumaen (배트맨) for "Batman". In addition, the English sound "f" is turned into p and has that vowel tacked on, so "golf" becomes golpeu (골프).