Korean Language/Pronunciation

The basic pronunciation of Korean Characters.

Like many other languages, the Korean Language also has complicated rules of pronunciation. In this page, let's look at the basic pronunciation of each Korean character.

In the Korean Language, there are 14 consonants and 10 vowels. (About the way of systemizing each consonants and vowels, see the page Korean writing system.

Consonants: [character (the name of character)] like [A (ei)] ㄱ(기역), ㄲ(쌍기역), ㄴ(니은), ㄷ(디귿), ㄸ(쌍디귿), ㄹ(리을), ㅁ(미음), ㅂ(비읍), ㅃ(쌍비읍), ㅅ(시옷), ㅆ(쌍시옷), ㅇ(이응), ㅈ(지읒), ㅉ(쌍지읒), ㅊ(치읓), ㅋ(키읔), ㅌ(티읕), ㅍ(피읖), ㅎ(히읗)

Vowels: • ㅏ(아), ㅐ(애), ㅑ(야), ㅒ(얘), ㅓ(어), ㅔ(에), ㅕ(여), ㅖ(예), ㅗ(오), ㅘ(와), ㅙ(왜), ㅚ(외), ㅛ(요), ㅜ(우), ㅝ(워), ㅞ(웨), ㅟ(위), ㅠ(유), ㅡ(으), ㅢ(의), ㅣ(이)

Consonants : 14 characters exist and some of them have their own fortis pronunciation. ㄱ(기역) : [g] of Gate. ㄲ(쌍기역): the fortis of 'ㄱ' ㄴ(니은) : [n] of Notebook. ㄷ(디귿): [d] of Date. ㄸ(쌍디귿) :the fortis of 'ㄷ' ㄹ(리을) : [l] of Lake. or sometimes [r], ㅁ(미음) : [m] of Mom. ㅂ(비읍) : [b] of Baseball. ㅃ(쌍비읍) : the fortis of 'ㅂ' ㅅ(시옷) : [s] of Smile. ㅆ(쌍시옷) : the fortis of 'ㅅ' ㅇ(이응) : [ng] of Song. ㅈ(지읒) : [j] of James. ㅉ(쌍지읒): the fortis of 'ㅈ' ㅊ(치읓) : [ch] or [ts] of Child. ㅋ(키읔) : [k] of Key. ㅌ(티읕) : [t] of Tea ㅍ(피읖) : [p] of Pig ㅎ(히읗) : [h] of Happy.

Vowels : 10 vowels and 11 diphthongs. ㅏ(아) : [a] ㅐ(애) : [ae] ㅑ(야) : [ya] ㅒ(얘) : [yae] ㅓ(어) : [eo] ㅔ(에) : [e] ㅕ(여) : [yeo] ㅖ(예) : [ye] ㅗ(오) : [o] ㅘ(와) : [wa] ㅙ(왜) : [oe] ㅚ(외) : [oe] ㅛ(요) : [yo] ㅜ(우) : [y] ㅝ(워) : [weo] ㅞ(웨) : [wae] ㅟ(위) : [yi] ㅠ(유) : [yu] ㅡ(으) : [u] ㅢ(의) : [ui] ㅣ(이) : [i]