Alphabet in Korean : Hangul Final Consonants (받침)

Pre-learning 

What you need to remember from previous Consonants and Vowel articles is the fact that Korean letter is basically composed of 3 parts. Also, each Korean letter makes one syllable. This is the point.

 

1. Consonant called Jaeum(자음) which is positioned at the top of letter

2. Vowel called Moeum(모음)

3. Final consonant called Bachim(받침) that is optional

 

2 types of Korean letter - Hangul, Korean alphabet cobinations

 

If you don't remember the sound of Consonants and Vowels, refer to the previous article below.

• Hangul Consonants

• Hangul Vowels

---

Bachim : Final Consonants in Hangul

Now we are moving on the last part of basic Hangul lessons - that is "Final consonants". It is called Bachim (받침) in Korean. You can see about 27 different shapes of final consonants in Hangul. It looks many, yet some of them sounds same.

Consonants (19)	Simple  Double	ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ
Vowels (21)	Simple  Compound	ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ  ㅠ ㅡㅣ ㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅢ
Final Consonants (27)	Simple Double	ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㄲ ㅆ ㄳ ㄵ ㄶ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ ㅄ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sound of Simple Final consonants

Written form	Actual Sound	Matching Sound in English
ㄱ, ㅋ, ㄲ	ㄱ	- k	back
ㄴ	ㄴ	- n	can
ㄷ, ㅌ, ㅎ, ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ	ㄷ	- t	but
ㄹ	ㄹ	- l	roll
ㅁ	ㅁ	- m	mom
ㅂ, ㅍ	ㅂ	- b	Bob
ㅇ	ㅇ	- ng	playing

 

If you mastered the sound of Consonants, Vowel and Final consonants, now you can read letters in the following table. Let's read it !

 

바	박	밥	밭
나	낙	납	낮
모	목	몹	못
타	탁	탑	탓

 

Answer :

Ba, Bak, Bob, Bat

Na, Nak, Nab, Nat

Mo, Mok, Mob, Mot

Ta, Tak, Tab, Tat

*** Read 'a' as [ɑ]

 

Sound of Double Final consonants

The double final consonants are headache. Basic rules are like these.

 

1. The sound of double final consonants is same to the left side consonant (ex. ㄳ => ㄱ)

2. The double final consonants make the main consonants of the following letter doubled. In case the folloing letter begins with 'ㅇ' consonant, its sound will just reflect the right side consonant of the previous letter. (ex. 몫을 => 목슬)

3. However, some words that has doubled final consonants use right side consonant following its old cusom. Thus, you have to check out dictionary to figure out if the word is one of the exceptionals

4. When the final consonant ends with 'ㅎ' and the following letter's main consonant is 'o', 'ㅎ' is scilent

This is why I said it's headache. For now, I don't want you to bother yourself to check double final consonants. But, simply remember the first rule. The table below will help you to feel it.

 

Double final consonants	Actual sound of 99% usage	Example
		Written form	its actual sound
ㄳ	ㄱ	몫이	목시
ㄵ ㄶ	ㄴ	앉아 않아요	안자 안아요
ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ	ㄹ	닭	닥
ㅄ	ㅂ	값	갑

 

---

I am happy that you have gotten through to here. Memorizing the alphabets are the biggest challenge when you study new languages. If you mastered Consonants, Vowel and Final consonants of Hangul well, what you will enjoy from now on is practical expressions ! We will check out how to write Korean character real quick in the next article, and move on to "안녕하세요" in the following series. Good job so far ! Keep up your good work !!! 화이팅 !!! (Cheer up !)

 

Daily Practice

Do you want to read real Korean words now? Here, let me prepare the most popular K-Drama words you might have heard if you're a Korean fanatic. Let's move on~

 

16 Popular Korean words in Hangul (from K-drama)