Korean pronunciation guide how to sound like a korean

Korean Pronunciation 101: Your One-stop Guide to Sounding More Native

Perhaps the most common fear among language learners is the possibility of humiliating oneself in front of a native speaker. Whether it be because of a limited vocabulary, incorrect grammar structure, a foreign accent or anything in between.

When learning a new language, pronunciation is a biggie.

In fact, it might just be the most important thing! Otherwise, nobody can understand the words that are coming out of your mouth!

So in this blog post, we’ll talk about everything to do with mastering Korean pronunciation.

How do you say words right? How do you gain the confidence of spot-on pronunciation?

We’ll look at loads of pronunciation tips so you can get that feel for Korean.

But the first tip is if you want to make the most out of this article, make sure you already know a little bit of Hangul and are familiar with the sounds of different consonants and vowels.

(If not, head here and quickly learn some!)

Now let’s dive in!

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Tips for Mastering Korean Pronunciation

Treat Each Syllable Equally

Korean is a syllable-timed language. This means equal time is spent pronouncing every syllable.

Each syllable for the word 사랑해 (sa-rang-hae), for example, will get equal pronunciation time.

English speakers have a hard time with this because English is stress-timed—meaning some syllables are naturally longer and louder, while others are scarcely heard or pronounced.

Korean syllables come at regular intervals and are delivered evenly. And because Korean isn’t a stress-timed language, you usually don’t hear those sudden pitch changes that you hear in English.

However, the first syllables of Korean words are usually slightly stressed, so this is where you might find a mild rise in pitch. But again, this is just a slight rise in tone, nowhere near the pronounced jumps and dips of English sentences.

Beginners who apply the tonal patterns of their native tongues into Korean by using stress—such as in the middle or at the beginning of words—usually end up sounding unnatural to native Korean speakers.

Draw Out the Ends of Your Sentences

There’s another way English speakers can drastically improve how they sound in Korean—by lengthening or drawing out the ends of their sentences.

I know this goes against everything you’re used to because English sentences trail off at the end. They become very weak or are cut off abruptly.

But that memorable tonality that you hear in Korean takes place at the end of sentences. If you lengthen the last syllable and deliver it a little louder, you get this effect.

Practice by humming along to some dialogue in a Korean movie. You don’t need to say the actual words. Just hum along and focus on how those sentences terminate.

You’ll get the hang of it in no time!

Listen, Don’t Write

Sure, you’ll want to learn how to write Hangul, but this is a post on pronunciation. You want to make sure that you’re actually polishing the right skill.

Sometimes looking at the Hangul characters can be too intimidating. Even worse, you can lose your focus and instead busy yourself with memorizing how the lines and squares are assembled.

Why don’t you close your eyes instead?

This is how you train your ears to pick up on the nuances and appreciate the texture of Korean pronunciations.

Speak Korean Like a Baby

Your mouth and tongue are a system of muscles that need to work together and move in certain ways to produce specific sounds.

A language is a specific set of sounds produced by positioning the tongue in certain areas of the mouth. And, like a muscle, you need to get them used to hitting those vocal positions. This only comes with practice—actually enunciating.

This is on-the-job-training for your mouth.

It’s obvious that if you want to learn how to swim you need to get in the water. If you want to learn how to speak Korean, you need to speak Korean (perhaps terribly at first).

You can’t just spend hours listening and only opening your mouth when you’re sure you can perfectly say every line like a native speaker. It just doesn’t work that way.

Act Out When Speaking

Moving around enlivens your practice sessions.

Don’t just sit there and drone through your words and sentences.

Stand up and role play. Move around. Act out the lines. Imagine you’re actually talking to someone.

It gives context to your utterances.

Motion is memory-friendly. It not only provides context and authenticity to your pronunciations, but it also makes things stick in your brain.

What About Romanization?

As a beginner Korean learner, you’ve surely been introduced to romanized forms of Hangul.

But don’t be fooled—being able to read romanization doesn’t mean you’re able to read Korean, or even pronounce words correctly.

Many linguists agree that using romanizations can be detrimental to your progress and aren’t good for the long run.

Plus, learning Hangul is way easier than you think. And once you do, Korean will be much easier and your skills will almost instantly improve.

Korean Pronunciation 101: Your One-stop Guide to Sounding More Native

How to Pronounce Aspirated Consonants

There are four main aspirated consonants: ㅋ,ㅌ,ㅍ and ㅊ.

They each have an equivalent unaspirated (or, plain) form: ㄱ,ㄷ,ㅂ and ㅈ.

If you carefully look at aspirated consonants like “ㅋ” and its unaspirated form “ㄱ,” or the aspirated “ㅌ” and its unaspirated form “ㄷ,” you’ll note that the aspirated ones have an extra stroke in them.

This represents the puff of air released from your mouth as you say it.

Hangul was made so easy and instinctive, even the characters tell you how to produce the sound!

The main difference is that aspirated consonants require a puff of air. For example, “ㅋ” and “ㄱ” both sound like the English “K,” with the only difference “ㅋ” having that puff of air.

Let’s take a look at how to master these.

Practice Unaspirated and Aspirated Consonants Together

When you practice these sounds, you need to practice them in pairs.

Pronounce the unaspirated one, followed by the aspirated version.

This will allow you to hear the difference between them. If you want, you can put a hand in front of your mouth so you get a feel. Even better, put a candle in front of your mouth and notice when the flame flickers.

Exaggerate the Puff of Air From Your Mouth

It’ll seem strange and awkward at first, but you need to exaggerate your pronunciation of the aspirated consonants. This will make the subtle ones more obvious and therefore allow you to hear the differences more clearly.

Give Aspirated Consonants Higher Pitches

Korean—unlike English, which suddenly and clearly goes up and down in tone—is usually very stable.

However, because of the air that goes out of your mouth, you might notice that aspirated consonants are ever so slightly higher in pitch compared to the unaspirated ones. The expelled air also makes them naturally sound louder.

Learn to Listen for the Sound by Producing It

“I can’t hear the difference between the two.”

That’s normal! You’re still honing your listening skills.

But as you continue to practice, and as you become more familiar with the flow of pronunciation and the predictable ways native speakers say things, you’ll begin to hear those nuances more clearly.

But the first step is to actually produce these sounds yourself.

Do a lot of repetitions and keep on practicing.

Record yourself going back and forth between unaspirated and aspirated consonants.

Enunciate and exaggerate.

Listen, and make some adjustments.

These things will lay the groundwork for your ears to detect the little things that layer the Korean language.

How to Pronounce Double Consonants

Practice Double Consonants with Unaspirated Consonants

There are five double consonants: ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ and ㅉ.

They already look very familiar to you because they’re “twice” the consonants ㄱ,ㄷ,ㅂ, ㅅ and ㅈ respectively.

As double consonants, these are pronounced with a little more stress compared to the plain unaspirated ones.

Just as you practiced unaspirated consonants with their aspirated siblings, you need to practice unaspirated consonants with their doubles.

This will ensure that you get to hear how one is slightly different from the other.

Give Double Consonants More Force and Higher Pitch

If aspirated consonants are a bit higher and louder than non-aspirated ones, the double consonants are a little higher and louder than both.

And because double consonants are said a little more emphatically, it changes the resulting sound a bit. They come off a little different than non-aspirated ones.

Let’s take a look:

“ㄱ” (which sounds like a “K”) now approximates the sound of “G” as “ㄲ”

“ㄷ” (which sounds like a “T”) now approximates the sound of “D” as “ㄸ”

“ㅂ” (which sounds like a “P”) now approximates the sound of “B” as “ㅃ”

“ㅅ” (which sounds like an “S”) now approximates the sound of the longer “SS” as “ㅆ”

“ㅈ” (which sounds like a “CH”) now approximates the sound of “J” as “ㅉ”

Don’t Just Hear It, Say It!

It can be tough differentiating the two sounds, especially for beginners. But again, in order for you to recognize them, you should be producing them yourself.

Let repetition be your mantra.

Go through these sequential drills:

How to Pronounce the Batchim

Know How the Batchim Changes Consonants

Native speakers of all languages try to make their lives easier. They instinctively change the sound of syllables, depending on what rolls off their tongues more smoothly.

Korean native speakers are the same, and the “Batchim” (받침) position is often the site of these instinctive sound changes.

As a review, Korean syllables are usually composed of one consonant and a vowel. Sometimes though, there’s an additional consonant—the final consonant—that’s usually found at the bottom of a syllabic block.

This is called the Batchim position and it’s an interesting piece of real estate.

The tricky thing about it is, some consonants change their standard sound when they’re in this position.

For example, the consonant “ㄹ” (rieul) is usually heard as the Korean letter “R.” But when it precedes another consonant or is in the Batchim position—as in the word 한글 (“hangeul”)—it’s pronounced like the letter “L.”

Another example is the consonant “ㅇ” (ieung). It’s silent when found at the beginning of the word. But when it’s at the Batchim position, it’s pronounced as “ng” like in 사랑 (“sarang”).

The Unaspirated Sound Reigns in the Batchim Position

When it comes to the Batchim, the unaspirated sound is often the preferred pronunciation.

Meaning, even if a word is written with the aspirated consonant, it’ll sound unaspirated when spoken by native speakers.

In the end, at least in the Batchim position, “ㄱ,” “ㅋ” and “ㄲ” will all sound the same—like an unaspirated letter “K.”

Unaspirated and simple sounds are often preferred at the Batchim position because they connect well to the next incoming syllables or sounds. Perfectly pronouncing the aspirated forms don’t roll on the tongue as smoothly because you might have to wait for the puff of air to finish before moving on to the next syllable or sound. As we’ve said, Korean native speakers make things easier on themselves.

To learn more about this interesting position, check out this video explaining seven basic Batchim rules!

How to Pronounce Korean Vowels

3 Vowels Don’t Have English Counterparts

There are just 10 standard vowels in Korean, and they can either be horizontally or vertically oriented.

The three that typically cause the most trouble for English speakers though are “ㅡ” (eu), “ㅓ” (eo) and “ㅕ” (yeo) because they don’t have natural equivalent vowel sounds in English.

The best way to combat this is to simply do extra practice drills.

The key to their pronunciation is hitting the right tongue and mouth positions so you can produce the sounds efficiently.

Pair Vowels with Consonants

For example, for the vowel “ㅏ,” you sequence through a series like 가, 나, 다, 라, 마, 바 and so on.

Repeat each syllable several times so your mouth can get a feel for the context of the vowel.

Then, you can expand your “ㅏ” practice by drilling through more complex syllables like 각, 낙, 닥 and 락.

Well, you get the idea.

And that’s just for one vowel!

Doing this will get you hundreds of repetitions for the different combinations of sounds in Korean. Your muscle will definitely get a workout.

This is very important because when it comes to pronunciation, you really have to get in the trenches. To get the pronunciations right, you must get your feet wet and actually do it.

There are no shortcuts here, so log in the hours for these drills.

And yes, they’ll sound repetitive!

How to Pronounce Korean Diphthongs

There are 11 Korean Diphthongs (also known as vowel combinations).

The older generation of Koreans will say that they represent 11 different sounds. Younger generations, however, tend to consolidate these diphthongs, which is really good news for learners!

For example, young Koreans wouldn’t even hear a difference betweenㅐ and ㅔ (both pronounced “eh”) and between ㅒ and ㅖ (both pronounced “yeh”).

To make things even easier, “ㅚ,” “ㅙ” and “ㅞ” are all pronounced as “weh.”

So from 11 diphthongs, you now only have seven pronunciations to memorize.

When it comes to writing, don’t worry too much about differentiating between these. The context will be more than enough to elucidate their differences, even though they have the same sound. Not much is lost here.

Just as you understand the difference between “see” and “sea” in sentences like “I went to the sea” and “I went to see a movie,” you’ll also be able to understand what is meant according to context.

(That happens later in your Korean journey, though!)

So what are you waiting for?

Time to do those pronunciation drills that we talked about! They’ll be all for nothing if you don’t get to it. Like I said before, there are no shortcuts when it comes to pronunciation.

So get those lips moving!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Korean Pronunciation: The Complete Guide To Sounding Like A Native

by Olly Richards

Want the good news about learning Korean? Compared to other Asian languages, Korean is relatively easy to learn. That’s because you can master reading and writing in just a few short hours.

What’s also nice is that Korean is mostly regular. That means aside from some exceptions here and there; Korean pronunciation is fairly easy.

Korean has a phonetic alphabet of twenty-four basic characters. This includes fourteen consonants and ten vowels.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how you pronounce each letter. I’ll also include a few tips on how to work through a few of the trickier letters you might stumble upon at first but can get the hang of in no time.

By the time you’re done reading this, you’ll be well on your way native-sounding Korean pronunciation.

By the way, if you want to learn Korean fast and have fun while doing it, my top recommendation is Korean Uncovered which teaches you through my fun, unique and effective StoryLearning® method.

If you’re ready to get started, click here for a 7-day FREE trial.

Korean Letters

The most important thing to remember is that there is no direct translation between Korean and English letters. It’s better to consider them approximations of each other.

For example, rather than thinking of it directly as “ㄱ=g,” it’s better to think of it as “ㄱ sounds like “gah as in garden.” The same goes for the remainder of the Korean letters.

Be sure to use the letter guide below accordingly:

Consonants:

Vowel:

*Remember you never write vowels by themselves. They must always be paired with the placeholder consonant ㅇ. So ㅏ should be written as 아, ㅑ as 야, and so on.

The best way to practice is by memorizing how all the consonants and vowels sound together.

Now do the same for the remaining consonants on the list above.

Korean Letter Combinations

Korean may have 24 letters, but you’ll often see several “letters” that aren’t on the list above. That’s because some letters are combined into one.

Here’s the thing—if you read each one individually, you’ll still be understood. But if you want to sound fluent, you’ll need to recognize and master the pronunciations of these letter combinations.

They come in two forms: double consonants and mixed vowels. And they’re actually pretty common. You’ll see them daily when you start speaking and reading Korean a lot.

But the more familiar you are with the alphabet above, the more they’ll make sense and flow more easily from you.

Double consonants: all double consonants make a strong consonant sound. Simply put extra emphasis on the original consonant. Think of it like “DDog” instead of “dog.” As your practice, you’ll hear the subtle difference between single and double consonants.

A famous word you’ve likely seen already written in English is Jjajang myeon (pronounced JAH-jang myeon). You can find this popular Korean dish everywhere in Korea.

Mixed Vowels

Korean also has some mixed vowels and consonants. These form when you put certain sounds together. Say everything very slowly to yourself and you’ll hear how the sounds come together.

Korean Pronunciation: 7 Difficult Korean Sounds & Pronunciations

On the whole, Korean pronunciation is super easy. It’s actually easier than English because you don’t have tricky letters like “C” that could either sound like “cat” or “cereal.

However, there are a handful of tricky aspects of Korean pronunciation that can trip up new learners a little. Here are a couple of thing you should pay extra attention to.

1. Each Korean Syllable Is Pronounced With Equal Stress

Say the word “camera” to yourself. Notice how you emphasize the first part of the word to say it like CAM-er-a.

For Korean, syllables are pronounced with equal stress for the same length of time. Instead of saying “CAM-er-a” with most emphasis on the front of the word and little on the end, you say “Ca-Me-Ra.”

By the way, the word for camera is the same in Korean!

The way you say it is “Kah-Meh-Rah.”

2. The Vowel “으 = eu” As In Hangul”

There is no direct sound in English like 으 or eu in Korean. So this can be tricky for new Korean speakers to get right.

It’s worth checking out some videos and watching the shape of people’s mouths when they make the sound.

When you pronounce 으, stretch your mouth wide and flat (picture a rectangle in your brain) and combine the sound “ew” and “uh.” And that’s it.

This is a good word to practice it with: 음악 or eumak, which means “music”. Another useful one to know is 음식 eumsik, which means “food”.

3. The Vowel 어 In English

The vowel 어 is written as “eo” in English. It’s easy to think it’s pronounced as “e-o” like “video.” But this is not actually how it sounds. This vowel is one of the top reasons why you should learn Korean as quickly as possible and stop relying on transliterations.

Instead, 어 sounds more like the “o” in the word “goal.” The best way to remember it is the word “Seoul.” You don’t say “SEEohul” but “Sole” The same goes with every other place you see 어.

Practice this words:

4. The Consonant ㄹ As In Ramen

The consonant ㄹ is another sound we don’t really have in English. It’s somewhere between the letters “R” and “L.”

Koreans don’t say a hard “R” for ramen. Instead it’s softer and a little closer to “l” to sound more like “lah-men.” The key is curling your tongue when you pronounce it.

When ㄹ is at the end of a syllable it sounds, it sounds like the L in “curly.”

For example, if you say “I eat rice” or 밥을 먹어, it sounds like bab-eul meo-geo.

It’s a little tricky at first. For now just remember there is no strong L or R sound and you’ll start to pick it up over time.

5. All The “Ay” Sounds

From the chart above, you probably noticed that “ay” and “ay” both sound like “ay” and “ay.” Likewise both ㅒand ㅖ sounds like “yay” and “yay.”

There is actually a slight difference between the pronunciations of these letters.

It’s a subtle difference that doesn’t matter too much at first. But it does change the way a word sounds.

For example, there are two words that have a similar pronunciation with different spellings:

Fortunately, context will be able to help you 99% of the time since people will assume you go on a walk with your dog and not your crab.

6. Korean Double Consonants

I briefly went into detail about the double consonants above. Here’s a little more on pronouncing them correctly.

Of the 14 main consonants, these five only: ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅈ can form double consonants.

As mentioned, it’s best to think of them as just strong pronunciations. But it’s also important to write them together as one letter.

So you double them up and write ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, and ㅉ to sound like [-gg], [-tt], [-pp], [-ss], and [-jj] respectively. They sound strong and a little higher-pitched. So keep your ear tuned closely while having conversations:

A few double consonant words:

7. Korean Mixed Vowels

Likewise, let’s go into a little more detail about those mixed vowels. Similar to the double consonants, you combine the vowels together into one letter.

Here’s the list again for you:

Let’s just take the top one. ㅐ sounds like ae as in “day.” With ㅐ, you combine ㅏ(a) plus ㅣ(e) to make ㅐ(ae). Say ㅐ(ae) slowly to yourself and you’ll hear it. “A” and “e” sounds like “ah e” then put together it’s “ay”. Or say the two letters ㅏ(a) plus ㅣ(e) quickly and you also should be able to hear it.

Do the same with all the other vowels on the list and you’ll be pronouncing them like a native speaker in no time.

Korean Pronunciation Like A Native Speaker

Practice makes perfect when it comes to Korean pronunciation. But have fun with it. Aside from language learning apps, you can watch videos, listen to music, or binge-watch your favorite K-drama.

The real secret is recording your voice while practicing. This is the best way to hear if you’re getting close to the right pronunciation or not. As uncomfortable as this might be, do this from time to time. This will help you hear where you’re nailing it and where you might need a little extra effort.

And don’t forget to keep reading and writing Hangul. The more you do so, the more everything will start coming together, and the closer you’ll be to getting that native-level Korean pronunciation all language learners want.

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Korean Pronunciation

This lesson is also available in: Español, Ελληνικά and العربية

Korean pronunciation is vastly different from English, and it takes a lot of practice to be able to pronounce words correctly. The biggest mistake you can make is to assume that the pronunciation of a Korean letter is identical to the pronunciation of that letter’s Romanization in English. This is simply not the case and is a mistake that virtually all new learners of Korean make.

This lesson is also available in: Español, Ελληνικά and العربية

I discuss different aspects of Korean pronunciation in this lesson. I will use this lesson to discuss aspects of Korean pronunciation that are not intuitive to an English speaker. I’ve divided this lesson into different sections:

General Pronunciation and the Movement of Sounds to Other Syllables

Listen to some of the syllables in sequence so you can get a feel for what they should sound like:

In addition to the syllables above, continue listening to the audio files in Lesson 1 and Lesson 2 (Unit 0) in the tables presented in those lessons.

Korean pronunciation is entirely different in structure compared to English pronunciation. You may have noticed this from listening to the recording files above. In English, whenever a word ends in a consonant, we always make a little sound after saying that last letter. It is very faint and difficult to hear for a person with a ‘non-Korean ear’ to hear. But try to hear the difference.

In English, if I were to say “ship”, there is a tiny sound of breath following the ‘p’ when our lips open.
In English, if I were to say “dock”, there is a tiny sound of breath following the ‘ck’ when your throat opens.
In English, if I were to say “cod”, (or kod) there is a tiny sound of breath following the ‘d’ when your tongue is removed from the roof of your mouth.

In Korean, they do not have this final ‘breath’ sound. This is called an “aspiration.” That is, the final letter in a Korean consonant is not aspirated. This is hard to understand at first to English speakers. Whatever position one’s mouth is in when they make the sound of a final consonant in a syllable – it stays like that. Listen to the following differences in English and Korean pronunciation of the same syllables:

In English: ship
In Korean: 십 (meaning ‘ten’)

In English: dock
In Korean: 독 (meaning ‘poison’)

In English: kod
In Korean: 곧 (meaning ‘soon’)

However…
If a word has a consonant as its final sound, and the first letter on the following syllable is ‘ㅇ’ (meaning that the first sound is a vowel) the breath from the final consonant from the first syllable gets pronounced with the vowel from that syllable. It is confusing to write in a sentence, so I will show you an example:

For example:
먹 in Korean is pronounced the same way as described earlier (i.e. by cancelling out the ‘last-breath’ after the ‘ㄱ’ in ‘먹.’ For example

If the following syllable is a consonant, nothing changes and the two syllables are pronounced as usual:

However, if the next syllable starts with a vowel the ‘breath’ after the ‘k’ sound is made along with this vowel. For example:

Technically, it sounds like:

머거
Note that it is not actually written like this, but only sounds like this.

Also note that if these two syllables were pronounced separately (먹 and 어), this phenomenon would not happen.
먹 + 어 (pronounced separately)

The most confusing of this rule is when ㅅ or ㅆ are the last letters in a syllable. When either of these is the final letter of a syllable, they are NOT pronounced as ‘S.’ Instead, they are pronounced similar to a ‘D’ sound. The reason for this is the same as I described earlier, that is, Korean people don’t allow that ‘breath’ of air out of their mouth on a final consonant. As soon as one’s tongue touches their teeth when making the “S” sound, the sound stops and no breath is made after it.

Listen to the following syllables to train your ear:
싯, 했, 겠, 었, 았, 짓

But, just like 먹 and 어, if syllables ending in ㅅ or ㅆ connect to another syllable where the first sound is a vowel, that ㅅ or ㅆ is pronounced as S combined with the following vowel (I know, it is very confusing).

Lets hear some examples:
했 and 어 (pronounced separately)
했어 (pronounced together)

As with 먹다, if the following syllable starts with a consonant, it gets pronounced normally:
했다

Explaining why different endings would come after a word (for example, 먹다 vs. 먹어 and 했다 vs. 했어) is something you will understand as you learn about Korean grammar. In Lesson 5 and Lesson 6 of Unit 1, you will be introduced to conjugation and when you would have to use these different pronunciation rules. For now, it is good enough to simply understand that this phenomenon occurs.

No Aspiration Sometimes Leads to Funny Sounding Syllables

In the previous section of this lesson, it was explained that the final letter in a Korean syllable is not aspirated. You saw how this causes the pronunciation of syllables to differ if the next syllable in a word begins with a consonant (먹다) or a vowel (먹어).

Try pronouncing the word “먹다” again.

Try it again. As you pronounce it, think about the movement of your tongue from the ㄱ sound in “먹” to the ㄷ sound in “다.” There isn’t anything hindering or stopping this movement.

There are some combination of syllables where – when pronounced – the movement of one’s tongue is not so easy. In these cases, it is hard to move one’s tongue fast enough to make the appropriate sound. Most (but not all) of these occur when the letter ㄹ is involved. For example, try pronouncing the syllable “복.” Now, try pronouncing the syllable “리.” Pronounced separated, they sound like this:

If those two syllables are pronounced together (which would happen in the word “복리”), one’s tongue cannot move immediately from the ㄱ sound to the ㄹ sound. Therefore, the two syllables pronounced together sound like this:

Notice that the ㄹ sound isn’t distinct. It sounds more like an ㄴ sound. Let’s discuss why this phenomenon occurs. As mentioned earlier in this lesson, the ㄱ sound is not aspirated. Therefore, immediately after the unaspirated ㄱ sound, one must pronounce the ㄹ sound. Without an aspiration (i.e. without a breath), there is no time for one’s tongue to move to correctly pronounce the ㄹ sound.

There are many words that are like this. There is no use in listing all of them, because that would over-stress you into thinking that memorizing all of this is important. The ideas that I am presenting in this section (and in this lesson in general) are things that you should keep in mind, but don’t need to specifically memorize yet. Your pronunciation of Korean words as a beginner will inevitably be off – even for words where the pronunciation is relatively straightforward.

I have gone through the list of vocabulary presented in every lesson in Unit 1 and Unit 2. There are a total of 1850 words in these two Units. From all of these words, I found twenty-two words that exhibit this phenomenon (the fact that only 22 of 1850 words have this might be an indication of how much attention you should give to it at this stage. Again, be aware of it, but don’t worry about it too much as an absolute beginner).

I have separated these words into groups. The words in each group have the same respective letters as the final consonant in one syllable and the first consonant in the next syllable. For example, in the first section, all of the words (somewhere in the word) have a syllable where the final consonant is ㅇ, and the first consonant of the next syllable is ㄹ:

Words where one syllable ends in ㅇ and the next syllable starts with ㄹ
In these words, the ㄹ sound changes to a ㄴ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:

정류장 (pronounced as 정뉴장)
종류 (pronounced as 종뉴)
대통령 (pronounced as 대통녕)
등록 (pronounced as 등녹)
능력 (pronounced as 능녁)
명령 (pronounced as 명녕)
입장료 (pronounced as 입장뇨)
동료 (pronounced as 동뇨)

Words where one syllable ends in ㄴ and the next syllable starts with ㄹ
In these words, the ㄴ sound changes to a ㄹ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:

안락 (pronounced as 알락)
훈련 (pronounced as 훌련)
관련 (pronounced as 괄련)
관리비 (pronounced as 괄리비)
권력 (pronounced as 궐력)

Words where one syllable ends in ㄱ and the next syllable starts with ㄹ
In these words, the ㄱ sound changes to a ㅇ sound and the ㄹ sound changes to an ㄴ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:

국립 (pronounced as 궁닙)
학력 (pronounced as 항녁)

Words where one syllable ends in ㅁ and the next syllable starts with ㄹ
In these words, the ㄹ sound changes to a ㄴ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:

음료수 (pronounced as 음뇨수)

Words where one syllable ends in ㅍ and the next syllable starts with ㄴ
In these words, the ㅍ sound changes to a ㅁ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:

앞니 (pronounced as 암니)

Words where one syllable ends in ㅌ and the next syllable starts with ㄴ
In these words, the ㅌ sound changes to a ㄴ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:

끝내다 (pronounced as 끈내다)
끝나다 (pronounced as 끈나다)

Words where one syllable ends in ㄱ and the next syllable starts with ㅁ
In these words, the ㄱ sound changes to a ㅇ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:

박물관 (pronounced as 방물관)
목마르다 (pronounced as 몽마르다)

Words where one syllable ends in ㅊ and the next syllable starts with ㅁ
In these words, the ㅊ sound changes to a ㄴ sound. Listen to an audio recording of each of these words to train your ear:

몇몇 (pronounced as 면멷)
(Notice that the second “ㅊ” also doesn’t sound like ㅊ. It sounds like “ㄷ” because ㅊ is not aspirated)

Words where one syllable ends in ㅅ
If a syllable ends in ㅅ, it’s possible that it might be a “Middle ㅅ.” This is a very difficult concept, and is discussed in detail in Lesson 131.

The Pronunciation of

In Lesson 6, you will be introduced to politeness in Korean. One way to make a sentence polite, is to add

ㅂ니다 to the end of a verb or adjective (the distinction between the two will be made in that lesson). When saying

ㅂ니다, the ㅂ sound changes to an ㅁ sound. For example:

습니다 (pronounced as 슴니다)

The Pronunciation of Syllables with Four Letters

The pronunciation of syllables that contain a fourth letter is a little bit different than above. If you are a beginner, you definitely do not need to memorize these rules/sounds/concepts from the very beginning. Being comfortable with Korean pronunciation takes years, and is not something that you can wrap your head around in a day. The best thing you can do as a beginner is to simply familiarize yourself with what is presented below (and above, for that matter). As you progress through our lessons, you will eventually come across these words in our Vocabulary Lists and in example sentences in our Lessons. Lucky for you, our vocabulary words and example sentences have audio files attached to them so you can listen to them as they are presented (if they don’t have an audio link, they will eventually). Familiarizing yourself with what is presented below will help you when you are introduced to these words later in our lessons. I’ll repeat my point one more time: While it is important to know how to pronounce things in Korean – this will not happen overnight. Use the concepts presented here to set yourself off on the right foot, but don’t get too bogged down on memorizing everything right now. It will come – with time.

If a syllable contains a fourth letter and is pronounced by itself, usually only one of the two final consonants is audible.

For example, if you listen to the word “닭“, the “ㄹ” is not audible and the word is actually pronounced as “닥”

Another example is the word “삶”, where the “ㄹ” is not audible and the word is actually pronounced as “삼”

This is hard for me to explain because you probably haven’t learned very much (if any) Korean grammar by this point. If I explain something that goes over your head in terms of grammar – don’t worry about that too much and try to just focus on the pronunciation notes I mention.

The two words above are nouns.

For all intents and purposes, it would be rare to find a noun just sitting by itself in a sentence. Rather, in Korean, one of many particles (or other things) would be attached to it. You haven’t learned about these particles yet, but you will be introduced to them throughout our lessons.

You will learn about the meanings of all of these in later lessons, but don’t worry about that now. Let’s just focus on pronunciation.

If the thing that attaches to these words starts with a consonant, the same rule from above applies, and only one of the two bottom consonants is pronounced. For example (There are two separate examples in the audio file below. I thought it would be better to give two examples instead of one in each case):

닭과 – 닭만
(This sounds closer to “닥과 – 닥만”)

However, if the thing that attaches to these words starts with a vowel, the pronunciation of the final consonant, in theory, should move to the upcoming syllable. For example:

닭을 – 닭이다
(This should sound closer to “달글 – 달기다”… but I admit it does sound like 닥을 – 닥이다.)
That is a native Korean speaker pronouncing those words, and there probably is a reason why she pronounced it that way. This is way beyond the scope of this lesson. Again, just try to understand what is being presented here in theory. You will have thousands of audio files to help you as you progress to later lessons.

닭 is a noun, but various things are also attached to verbs/adjectives as well that change pronunciation.

The following are three common verbs in Korean that have this fourth letter (All verbs end with “

다” but don’t worry about that for now):

앉다 = to sit
읽다 = to read
없다 = to not have

Listen to the pronunciation of each of those words. You will notice that (just like the word “닭” above), because each of the four-letter syllables is followed by a consonant (다), only one of the two final consonants is pronounced. As you can see here, the letter that is not pronounced is not the same in every word.

In 앉다, ㅈ is not pronounced (sounds like “안”)
In 읽다, ㄹ is not pronounced (sounds like “익”)
In 없다, ㅅ is not pronounced (sounds like “업”)

This is beyond your understanding right now, but various grammatical principles can replace “다” to have different meanings. You will learn about all of these in later lessons. For example:

If the thing that replaces “다” starts with a consonant, the same rule from above (with nouns) applies, and only one of the two bottom consonants is pronounced. For example, if 앉 is followed by a consonant:

앉겠다 – 앉고
(This sounds closer to “안겠다 – 안고”)

However, if the thing that replaces “다” starts with a vowel, the pronunciation of the final consonant moves to the upcoming syllable. For example, if 앉 is followed by a vowel:

앉아 – 앉으면
(This sounds closer to “안자 – 안즈면”)

You can see the same phenomenon with all words that have this 4th letter. Let’s listen to “읽다” when “다” is replaced by something starting with a consonant compared to a vowel.

Followed by a consonant:
읽겠다 – 읽고
(Sounds closer to “익겠다 – 익고”)

Followed by a vowel:
읽어 – 읽으면
(Sounds closer to “일거 – 일그면”)

Let’s do the same thing with 없다

Followed by a consonant
없겠다 – 없고
(Sounds closer to “업겠다 – 업고”)

Followed by a vowel
없어 – 없으면
(Sounds closer to “업서 – 업스면)

Let’s do the same thing with 긁다 (to scratch)

Followed by a consonant
긁겠다 – 긁고
(Sounds closer to “극겠다 – 극고”)

Followed by a vowel
긁어 – 긁으면
(Sounds closer to “글거 – 글그면”)

Again, explaining the difference in meaning and purpose between…

앉다 vs. 앉고 vs. 앉아
읽다 vs. 읽고 vs. 읽어
없다 vs. 없고 vs. 없어
닭 vs. 닭과 vs. 닭을

… is a matter of Korean grammar, which will be explained in our lessons. As I mentioned earlier, our later lessons will have many example sentences with audio recordings so you can continue to train your ear as you progress through your studies. You absolutely do not need to memorize these concepts before you move on. You will memorize them naturally as you progress with our Lessons.

The Pronunciation of ㅢ

The pronunciation of ㅢ often causes confusion for foreigners learning Korean. In Unit 0: Lesson 3, you can find a recording of a Korean person pronouncing “ㅢ” when different starting consonants. Here is that recording again:

Aside from 의, you will rarely (or never) come across the other syllables in that recording. Pay more attention to the sound that is being made.

Though that can be good practice, syllables are rarely just used by themselves. More often, syllables are connected to make words or some sort of grammatical principle. The pronunciation of “ㅢ” can change depending on where and how it is used.

If you are reading this without having read any lessons in Unit 1, this explanation might go over your head. In order to understand some of what is presented below, some understanding of Korean word structure and grammar might help. I’m including this explanation in this lesson (in Unit 0) because this is my lesson about pronunciation. In reality, you probably don’t need to worry about this until you come across it in my lessons. I’ll link back to this part of this lesson when it becomes important in your studies.

Officially, the correct pronunciation of “ㅢ” is “ㅢ” (as recorded above). Makes sense. The following are alternate pronunciations that are seen as “acceptable” and are common in speech.

When ㅢ is found in the first syllable of a word, and the syllable begins with “ㅇ” (making the first sound be “ㅢ), the pronunciation is “ㅢ.” Here is a recording of two words where this can be heard:

When ㅢ is found in the first syllable of a word, but the syllable begins with a consonant, the pronunciation can be “이.”

희망 (pronounced as “히망”) = hope (the noun, not the verb)
띄어쓰기 (pronounced as “띠어쓰기”) = a space in writing

When ㅢ is found somewhere other than the first syllable of a word, the pronunciation can be “이.” For example:

저희 (pronounced as “저히”) = a formal way to say “we”
동의 (pronounced as “동이”) = an agreement
정의 (pronounced as “정이”) = a definition
회의 (pronounced as “회이”) = a meeting

In Unit 1: Lesson 3, you will learn about “

의” and how it can be used to have a meaning of possession. In English, we can put “’s” on the end of a word, or change “I” to “my” or “him” to “his.” For example:

저 = I/me
친구 = friend
저의 친구 = My friend

책 = book
저의 책 = My book
저의 친구의 책 = My friend’s book

차 = car
저의 차 = My car

When used like this, the pronunciation can be “에.” For example:

저의 책 (pronounced as “저에 책”) = My book
저의 차 (pronounced as “저에 차”) = My car
저의 친구 (pronounced as “저에 친구”)= My friend
저의 친구의 책 (pronounced as “저에 친구에 책”)= My friend’s book

A word that you will learn much later in your studies is “의의,” which translates to “meaning” or “significance.” For you, the translation is not important right now. Instead, let’s focus on the pronunciation. Imagine if I wanted to ask about “의의”’s pronunciation. In Korean, I would have to use the additional “

의” as talked about above (and introduced in Unit 1: Lesson 3). In theory, I could write:

Again, “의의” is a word. The third “의” is attached to the word to have the function of “’s” in English. Don’t worry about the grammar for now.

The first syllable begins with ㅇ, and therefore “의” is pronounced as “의”
“ㅢ” is also found in the second syllable. In this case, “의” can be pronounced as “이”
“의” is attached to the word to have the function described in Lesson 3. In this case, “의” can be pronounced as “에”.

The whole construction can be pronounced as “의이에.”

Introduction to pronunciation of Korean for beginners

pronunciation of Korean

Guide on the pronunciation of Korean

IN THIS LESSON YOU WILL LEARN HOW TO WRITE KOREAN LETTERS A TO Z. And You will also learn the pronunciation of Korean.

YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ AND WRITE KOREAN ALPHABETS AFTER FINISHING THIS LESSON. Korean letter is known as Hangul. Hangul is made up of consonants and vowels. Korean alphabets have shapes of a vertical line, a horizontal line, and round circle.

Korean consonants and vowels

ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ are consonants

ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ are vowels.

Korean combined vowels

eir ㅐ
eir ㅒ
yeir ㅔ
ere ㅖ
yere ㅘ
woe/where ㅙ
wo ㅝ
wue ㅞ
wei ㅟ
wei ㅢ

Pronunciation of Korean

How to write Korean letters a to z

Korean is written both in a vertical and horizontal line. But nowadays the majority of Korean is written horizontally and it is written from left to right.

Though Korean has its own writing system I have written Korean letter A to Z in roman style.
A 에/ 애
B 비
C 시
D 디
E 이
F 엪
G 지
H 엦
I 아이
J 제
K 께
L 엘
M 엠
N 엔
O 오
P 삐
Q 규
R 알
S 에스
T 띠
U 유
V 비
W 덥류
X 엑스
Y 와이
Z 젯

Please watch this video to learn the shape of the Korean alphabets. The video has explained how to write Korean letters.

Pronunciation of Korean alphabet

Korean alphabet has both vowels and consonants. Now let’s learn shape and pronunciation of Korean alphabets one by one.

Korean vowels pronunciation

ㅏ Aa in Car, BAR, FAR

ㅑ Ya in Yard, YANGJU

ㅓ eo in Song, ARGENTINA

ㅕ yeo Yo in Yonder, YELLOW

ㅗ O in Rome, ONE, ROPE

ㅛ Yo as in Yorkshire,

ㅜ u, OO as in Boob, LOOP

ㅠ Yu as in You, YUMMY

ㅡ eu in Good, SHUT

ㅣ ee Like EE/i in Meet, SIT, BEAT

Pronunciation of Korean consonants

Pronunciation of Korean

After watching this video you will be able to pronounce Korean letters/ alphabets. So watch carefully till the end and try to pronounce yourself. Native Korean teacher is telling you how to pronounce Korean alphabets.

Pronunciation of Korean words

Here is a list of simple Korean words (Words made from Korean vowels and consonants) and their pronunciations. Try to practice by yourself.

korean vowels sounds

ㅏ = 아프다 (AFUDA) = Pain, Sick, 알다 (ALDA) – Know/ have knowledge, 알 (AL) – Egg

ㅑ = 약속 (Yaksok) – Promise, 약간 (Yakgan) – A little, 야채 (Yachhe) – Vegetable

ㅓ = 업무 (Eupmu) – Business / Work, 어렵다 (Euryopta) – Hard/ Tough/ Difficult

ㅕ = 여 (Ya) – Girl/ woman, 여행 (Yeoheng) Travel/ Tour, 영어 (Yeong eo) – English

ㅗ = 오 (wo) – Five, 옷 (wot) – Cloth/ Dress, 외국인 foreigner, alien

ㅛ = 요청 (Yochheong) – Request/ Demand, 요즘 (Yojum) – These days, Nowadays

ㅜ = 운동 (Undong) – Workout/ Exercise, 위치 (Wichhi) – Position/ Location

ㅠ = 유치원 (Yuchhiwon) – Kindergarten, 유감 (Yugam) – Regret

ㅡ = 의미 (wemi) Meaning/ sense, 의심 (Wesim) – Doubt, suspicion, 음식 (Umsik) – Food

ㅣ = 이 (Ee) Teeth, 일상 (Ilsang) – Everydaylife, 일어나다 (Iranada) – Rise, Get up

This is all about how to pronounce vowels in korean.

Pronunciation of Korean consonant words

ㄱ = 관심 (khwansim) – interest, attention, 기준 (Kijun) – standard, Criteria

ㄴ = 노력 (Noryak) – effort, 능력 (Nungryak) – ability, 내일 (Neil) – tomorrow, future

ㄷ = 등록 (Dungrok)- registration, 다르다 (Tharuda)- different, 담당자 (Damdangja) the person in charge

ㄹ = 레스토랑 (Resthorang) – restaurant, 라면 (Ramen) – ramen, instant noodles

ㅁ = 문제 (Munje) – question, problem, 목적 (MOkjak) – purpose, object, goal

ㅂ = 방법 (Phangfap) – means, method, 부탁 (Buthak) – request, 분석 (Funsak) – analysis

ㅅ = 상황 (Sanghwang) – situation, 성공 (Seonkhong) – success, 성격 (Seongyak) – character, personality

ㅇ doesn’t have any sound when it comes first and sounds like (ng) when it is at the bottom of the word.

ㅈ = 종류 (Chhongryu) – kind, sort, variety, 준비 (Chunbi) – ready, prepare

ㅊ = 추억 (Chhingu)- memory, recollection, 차이 (Chhai)- difference, 친구 (Chhingu)- friend

ㅋ = 키우다 (Khiuda)- raise, rear, 코끼리 (Khokiri)- elephant, 크기 (Khugi)- size, bulk

ㅌ 특히 (Thukhi)- especially, 통합 (Thonghap)- combine, 태어나다 (Theanada)- be born

ㅍ 표현 (Fyohyeon)- expression, 판매 (Fanme)- sale, sell, 필요 (Firyo)- need

ㅎ = 확인 (Hwakin)- Identify, confirmation, 환경 (Hwangyeong)- the environment, 행동 (Hengdong) – act, action, behaviour.

How to read Korean fast

Here are some tips to improve the Korean reading

1. Read Newspaper and online Korean articles

It is hard to read a newspaper in the Korean language but you have to try reading slowly and consistently. You can try by reading a poem and songs.

2. Singing Korean song

Singing Korean karaoke songs is another great way to read Korean faster. K-pop is famous both inside South Korea and outside of South Korea. You can get these karaoke songs in norebang (Korean karaoke or 노래방). Youtube also has many Korean karaoke songs.

3. Watch K-drama and movies

Korean dramas and movies have gained a lot of popularity. Watching these dramas with Korean subtitles helps to learn Korean faster.

Korean vowel words

아이 Aai – Baby
오이 Woi – Cucumber
우유 Wuyu – Milk
우와 Wuwa – Wow
이유 Iyu – Reason
여우 Yeou – Fox
오 Wo – Five
이 I/ Ee – Two, Teeth
야 Yaa – Hey in English (used only in between friends)

Hangul writing practice sheets pdf

Please click on the pdf link below to access the Korean language pdf file. This link will redirect you to google drive.

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 a go, d in a do (much ado about nothing), dj as in a djourn, b in a bout, z in la zer or ss in ga ssy (I’ve heard both)

ㄹ gets pronounced like tapped t or d in wri ter/ri der when they are pronounced the same

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

ㅎ is a voiced h in u h— huh! or not pronced at all

ㅇ is pronounced as ng in si nger

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 s pin (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 s top 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 Snap chat 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 s kit with a higher pitch

The final few initials:

ㄹ- like tapped t or d in wri ter/ri der 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 na p

ㄱ,ㅋ as ck in ba ck

ㄷ, ㅌ,ㅈ,ㅊ, ㅅ, ㅎ as t in pa t

ㅇ is pronounced as ng in si ng

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

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

이- ee in fl eece

에/애- e in p et (same pronunciation in Seoul)

Diphthongs

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

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

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 g o 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

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.