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Pronunciation question

Um_Bongo
New in Town
Posts: 1
Joined: September 3rd, 2008 9:07 pm

Pronunciation question

Postby Um_Bongo » September 4th, 2008 12:51 pm

Hey guys!

I've only just started with Korean (today, in fact), and I'm trying to learn the Korean alphabet. A few of the characters (are they classed as characters?) sound quite similar, and I was wondering if someone could explain the differences between:

ㅈ vs. ㅊ

ㄱ vs. ㅋ

ㄷ vs. ㅌ

If I were to hazard a wild guess, it would be that the latter are aspirated and the former are not. Is that right?

Also, I find the ㄹsound quite tricky. Now I know why Koreans have difficulties with our Rs and Ls :P

Any tips very welcome!

austinfd
Expert on Something
Posts: 251
Joined: October 9th, 2007 5:36 am

Re: Pronunciation question

Postby austinfd » September 4th, 2008 4:08 pm

Um_Bongo wrote:Hey guys!

I've only just started with Korean (today, in fact), and I'm trying to learn the Korean alphabet. A few of the characters (are they classed as characters?) sound quite similar, and I was wondering if someone could explain the differences between:

ㅈ vs. ㅊ

ㄱ vs. ㅋ

ㄷ vs. ㅌ

If I were to hazard a wild guess, it would be that the latter are aspirated and the former are not. Is that right?

Also, I find the ㄹsound quite tricky. Now I know why Koreans have difficulties with our Rs and Ls :P

Any tips very welcome!


You're absolutely right. The second one of each of those pairs is aspirated. There's another non/aspirated pair as well

ㅂ vs ㅍ

Explore the material on this site. You should be able to find some good examples of each sound. I recommend listening to them in actual words because you rarely hear the letter all by itself.

ㄹ is definitely tricky! But you'll get the hang of it.
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