Korean Pronunciation Guide for American English speakers

There is a reason why often learners of Korean are encouraged to quickly learn Hangeul. Transliteration of Korean is harmful for being able to understand spoken Korean, at least the Seoul dialect.

Consonants

In Between Vowels

This is the easiest to explain, since they match the English consonants better

ㄴ, ㅁ get realized as nasal n, m

ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅈ, ㅂ, ㅅ get realized as voiced g as in ago, d in ado (much ado about nothing), dj as in adjourn, b in about, z in lazer or ss in gassy (I’ve heard both)

ㄹ gets pronounced like tapped t or d in writer/rider when they are pronounced the same

ㄹㄹ gets pronounced closer to ll in silly but with the tongue tip pointing up

ㅎ is a voiced h in uh-huh! or not pronced at all

ㅇ is pronounced as ng in singer

Initials

ㅁ- pronounced like b in bin or somewhat like m in minimum

ㅂ- pronounced like p in pin but with a lower pitch

ㅍ- pronounced like p in pin with more aspiration, almost like p-hin with a higher pitch

ㅃ- pronounced like p in spin (no aspiration) with a higher pitch

you can watch Koreans explain this:

similarly, the other series of consonants:

ㄴ- like d in done or n in none

ㄷ- like t in ton with a lower pitch

ㅌ- like t in ton with higher aspiration, almost like t-hon with a higher pitch

ㄸ- like t in stop but with a higher pitch

Notice the symmetry in the Korean symbols: the top of the ㅂ or ㄷ is removed to get the nasal/voiced initial, a dash is added to get the aspirated one, or it’s doubled to get the plain/emphatic one without aspiration

ㅈ- ch in chat with lower tone

ㅊ- ch in chat with more aspiration like ch-hat with a higher pitch

ㅉ- ch in Snapchat with higher pitch

In this case, removing the top of the symbol gives another consonant series:

ㅅ- s in sat but with a lower pitch

ㅆ- s in sat but with a higher pitch and longer

The last series doesn’t have a voiced/nasal initial:

ㄱ- like k in kit with a lower pitch

ㅋ- like k in kit but with more aspiration, like k-hit with a higher pitch

ㄲ- like k in skit with a higher pitch

The final few initials:

ㄹ- like tapped t or d in writer/rider when they are pronounced the same (but can occur at the start)

ㅎ- like h in hotel, clearly pronounced

ㅇ- doesn’t have a sound, indicates that the syllable begins with a vowel

Finals

ㄴ, ㅁ as nasal n, m

ㅂ, ㅍ as p in nap

ㄱ,ㅋ as ck in back

ㄷ, ㅌ,ㅈ,ㅊ, ㅅ, ㅎ as t in pat

ㅇ is pronounced as ng in sing

So the reason why Koreans don’t suggest relying on romanization is because https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revised_Romanization_of_Korean uses the values that are in between vowels for initials which is confusing for new learners since that’s not how they sound like.

Vowels

The vowels are arguably even worse. I will try the best approximations based on American phonetic values. I write them with the ㅇ to indicate this syllable starts with a vowel, it’s more useful to learn the shapes how they appear in words

아- a in ah!

어- aw in dawn

오- ou in would, I chose this specific combination because it sometimes sounds more like o in corn, but sometimes closer to u in put

우- oo in goose

이- ee in fleece

으- u in ugh

에/애- e in pet (same pronunciation in Seoul)

Diphthongs

외- we in west

위- wee as in weed

의- 으 initially (or as 으이), 이 after consonants, 에 as the genitive marker

와- w + 아 since this diphthong doesn’t occur in English

워- wa as in water

웨, 왜- we as in west

얘, 예- ye as in yes but after consonants 에, after vowels usually 에

여- yaw in yawn

요- yu in yurt

Examples

In Korean a whole syllable is written to kind of fit in a square box:

네 is pronounced deh and transliterated ne; means yes

몸 is pronounced boum (kind of like o or u vowel) transliterated mom; means body

김 is pronounced keem, transliterated Gim; common last name usually spelled as Kim

최 is pronounced chweh, transliterated Choe; common last name usually spelled Choi

시 is pronounced shee (the vowel changes the preceding consonant), transliterated si; means hour

Common Phrases

안녕하세요- (transliteration annyeonghaseyo); means hello. The polite particle -요 is often pronounced as -yuh and sometimes even has a spelling pronunciation -여 so pronounced like ah-nyawng-ah-seh-yuh

어서세요- (transliteration eoseoseyo); means literally “come in quickly” but more like welcome and pronounced closer to aw-saw-seh-yuh

잠시만요- (transliteration jamsimanyo); literally “little time stop” but more like excuse me; pronounced chahm-shee-mahn-yuh

그래- (tranlisteration geurae); literally “it is that way” but more like agreed or sure; pronounced k-reh

미안해요- (transliteration mianhaeyo); it means sorry; pronounced bee-ah-neh-yuh

Discussion

When learning with transliteration, American English speakers often don’t pronounce 오 like a high vowel. So when native speakers pronounce words like 옷 and 웃 both with high vowels, this is confusing. In actuality 우 is more center or less rounded. This is why I chose to recommend to think of it as “oo” since that vowel in American English has a wide range of realizations and often not very back. 오 is more back, so it’s weird to suggest “u” as in “put”, but it also has lower realizations closer to “o”. It’s maybe close to the diphthong [ou] as in go but that would be confusing too since it’s not a diphthong.

The vowel system in IPA would be something like this:

우 [ʉ] since it’s more front than 오

오 [u] even though it’s sometimes realized as low as [o]

으 [ɨ] more unrounded than 우

이 [i]

에/애 [e] both merged

어 [ʌ] this is why I chose to use “aw” to represent it, since it’s a lower vowel

아 [a] no real General American equivalent, since a in father would be the same as aw anyway, so I just used ah

So in IPA, the previous phrases would be something like

[an.njʌŋ.a.se.jə], [ʌ.sʌ.se.jə], [˨t͡ɕam.˦ɕi.man.jə], [˨kɨ.˦re], [˨bi.˦a.ne.jə]

Personally, I’ve found that once I start expecting a high 오 or a denasalized ㄴ/ㅁ or a low 어 I have much better time actually hearing which word is being said. This is why learners of Korean are discouraged from relying on romanizations — they encourage wrong expectations phonetically. In fact, exaggerating a little bit by always pronouncing 오 as u and ㄴ as d initially helped me fix some of my pronunciation issues. I can more easily transcribe what is being said. But I still struggle with tonal patterns. When I tried to say 재원 (male name) the Korean I was speaking to thought I said 채완 (female name) even though I didn’t aspirate it much at all!

Korean pronunciation is definitely more challenging than it seems at the beginning.

Sources:

https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/42544/BerrjodMaster.pdf?sequence=1

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262952103_Tense_and_Lax_Stops_in_Korean