Korean Alphabets

[g, k] An unaspirated ‘k’ at the beginning of a word, and a ‘g’ most of the time in the middle of words.

[n]

[d, t] Like, ㄱ, this consonant is like the unaspirated ‘t’ in English. It is a ‘d’ in the middle of words.

• [r, l] A mixture between the English ‘r’ and ‘l’. When between vowels, it is like a single rolled Spanish ‘r’ or like the ‘tt’ in ‘butter’ in some American dialects. If there are two of them together, it becomes a solid ‘l’.
• ex. 가라! – ka-ra – "Go!"달리 – tal-li – "differently"

[m]

[b, p] An unaspirated ‘p’ at the beginning of words, and a ‘b’ in the middle of words.

• [s] When coming before the "ee" sound, it becomes an ‘sh’.
• ex. 산 – san – "mountain"시 – shi – "poem"

• [-, ng] In the bottom of syllables, this character is like the English ‘ng’ without the ‘g’ sound. At the beginning of syllables, this character is just a place marker and has no sound.
• ex. 잉어 – ing-ŏ – "carp"영어 – yŏng-ŏ – "English"

• [j, ch] Unaspirated ‘ch’ at the beginning of words, ‘j’ inside words.
• ex. 자 – cha – ruler자자 – cha-ja – "Let’s sleep"

• ['ch] Strongly aspirated ‘ch’.
• ex. 차 – ch’a – "car"

• ['k] Strongly aspirated ‘k’.
• ex. 카페 – k’a-pe – "Café"

• ['t] Strongly aspirated ‘t’.
• ex. 탄내 – t’an-nae – "burnt smell"

• ['p] Strongly aspirated ‘p’.
• ex. 패 – p’ae – "medal"

• [h] Almost silent after ㄴ, ㅁ, ㅇ, between vowels. When it comes before or followsㄱ, ㄷ,ㅂ, or ㅈ, it makes the consonants aspirated: ㅋ, ㅌ,ㅍ, ㅊ respectively
• ex. 해 – hae – "sun"