Alphabet - lesson 2
Learn to read Korean within minutes


  Consonants

 

Basic consonants

Below is a table showing the Korean consonants followed by their pronunciation. It shows the symbols used in the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and the Revised Romanization (RR), which is official in South Korea since the year 2000.

JamoRRIPA
ㄱg, kg
ㄴnn
ㄷd, td
ㄹr, lɾ, l
ㅁmm
ㅂb, pb,
ㅅss, ɕ
ㅇ(nothing), ngŋ (final)
ㅈjtɕ
ㅊchtɕʰ
ㅋkkʰ
ㅌttʰ
ㅍppʰ
ㅎhç

However, these consonants are not enough to transcribe all the sounds of Korean. There are also five double consonants:

JamoRRIPA
ㄲkkrelated toㄱ but with a tenser pronunciation
ㄸttrelated to ㄷ but with a tenser pronunciation
ㅃpprelated to ㅂ but with a tenser pronunciation
ㅆssrelated to ㅅ but with a tenser pronunciation
ㅉjjrelated to ㅈ but with a tenser pronunciation