Basic Consonants · 기본 자음

4. Common mistakes

❌ Mistake 1 — Treating ㄱ and ㅋ as the same

✖ 가 → "ka" with a big puff
✔ 가 → "ga", soft and relaxed
✔ 카 → "ka", with a big puff

English speakers often read every ㄱ as k, or hear no difference between ㄱ and ㅋ. In Korean they are two different letters. Use g for the soft one and k for the one with the puff.

❌ Mistake 2 — Making ㄹ a hard English "r"

✖ 라 → "ra" with the tongue curled back
✔ 라 → a quick tap of the tongue tip, between r and l

Curling the tongue back sounds foreign in Korean. Touch the tongue tip lightly on the gum behind your upper teeth, and let it fall away fast.

❌ Mistake 3 — Pronouncing the silent ㅇ

✖ 아 → "nga"
✔ 아 → "a", with no consonant sound

At the start of a syllable, ㅇ is empty. It looks like an "o" or a zero, but it adds no sound. Begin directly with the vowel.

❌ Mistake 4 — Reading tense ㅃ as a long sound

✖ 아빠 → "ah-paaa", with a long, breathy p
✔ 아빠 → "a-ppa", a tight stop with no puff

Tense sounds are short and tight, not long. Close the lips fully, hold for a moment, and release with no air. Do not add a puff of breath.

❌ Mistake 5 — Mixing up ㅅ and ㅆ

✖ 사다 and 싸다 sound the same
✔ 사다 → sa-da, to buy
✔ 싸다 → ssa-da, to be cheap

ㅆ is a stronger, tighter ㅅ. Write the letter twice and you make the sound twice as firm. Listen to audio, because the meaning depends on it.