Hangul Final Consonants

Make sure you’ve read Unit 1, Lesson 1 before starting this lesson!

Welcome back! So far, you’ve learned the basic sounds of all the Hangul consonants and vowels. You know how letters combine to form syllable blocks, and you’ve learned some useful vocabulary.

In this lesson, we’re going to dive deep into one of the most important concepts for accurate Korean pronunciation: the final consonant, also known as 받침 (batchim).

As you saw in Lesson 1, the final consonant is the consonant that appears at the bottom of a Hangul character. For example, in the word 한 (han), the letter ‘ㄴ’ is the final consonant.

While there are many different consonants and even double consonants that can appear in the final position, the great news is that they can only make one of 7 possible sounds. This simplifies pronunciation immensely! Once you learn these 7 sounds, you’ll be able to correctly pronounce the end of any Korean syllable.

The 7 Final Consonant Sounds

Every single final consonant, whether it’s a single letter like ‘ㄱ’ or a double letter like ‘ㄺ’, will be pronounced as one of the following seven representative sounds: [ㄱ], [ㄴ], [ㄷ], [ㄹ], [ㅁ], [ㅂ], or [ㅇ].

Let’s look at a chart to see which consonants make which sound.

Don’t worry about memorizing this whole chart right away. We’ll go through each of the 7 sounds one by one. The key takeaway is that many different letters get simplified to the same sound as a final consonant.

Sound 1: The [ㄱ] sound

We romanized the [ㄱ] sound as a [k]. In reality, it is slightly different from the way English speakers pronounce k at the end of a word.

Compare the pronunciation of the English word book with the Korean word 북 (buk) which means ‘drum’. With book, the [k] is pronounced with a puff of air.

On the other hand, [ㄱ] is what we call an unreleased [k] sound. Think of the ‘k’ sound at the end of the English word “book,” but stop the sound right before you release the puff of air. Your tongue should be in the ‘k’ position at the back of your mouth, stopping the airflow.

The consonants that make this sound are: ㄱ, ㅋ.

• ㄱ as a final consonant: 책 (chaek) - book
• ㅋ as a final consonant: 부엌 (bu-eok) - kitchen

Notice how both ‘책’ and ‘부엌’ end with the same, unreleased [k] sound, even though they are written with different letters.

Sound 2: The [ㄴ] sound

This one is easy! The [ㄴ] sound is pronounced exactly like the English ‘n’, just as it is when it’s an initial consonant.

The only consonant that makes this sound is ㄴ.

• ㄴ as a final consonant: 산 (san) - mountain

Sound 3: The [ㄷ] sound

This is the most important rule to master, as many different consonants get neutralized to this single sound. The [ㄷ] sound is an unreleased [t] sound. Just like with the [ㄱ] sound, you should move your tongue to the ‘t’ position (just behind your teeth) to stop the airflow, but don’t release a puff of air.

The consonants that make this sound are: ㄷ, ㅌ, ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅎ.

That’s right! All of these distinct consonants sound identical at the end of a syllable.

• ㅌ: 밑 (mit) - bottom
• ㅅ: 옷 (ot) - clothes
• ㅈ: 낮 (nat) - daytime
• ㅊ: 빛 (bit) - light
• ㄷ: 곧 (got) - soon
• ㅎ: 좋 (jot) - not a real word

Listen carefully. Even though they are all spelled differently, the final sounds are all the exact same unreleased [t].

Note about the ㅎ batchim and 좋 (jot)

There is essentially no word that ends with a ㅎ final consonant. For example, 좋 is not a word, but 좋다 (jo-ta) is a word that means to like/to be good. The character 다 (da) changes the pronunciation.

We discuss these pronunciation rules in Lesson 9.

Note about [t] pronunciation

Some English speakers pronounce a t sound by stopping the airflow in the back of their throw. This is known as a glottal stop. Do not do this when pronouncing the final consonant ㄷ.

When you pronounce the final consonant [ㄷ], your tongue should be in the same position as when you pronounce ㄷ as an initial consonant, or when you pronounce t in the English word top.

Quiz 1: ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ sounds

Sound 4: The [ㄹ] sound

The [ㄹ] sound in the final position is similar to an English [l] sound, like the ‘l’ in the English word ball. They are not exactly the same, so I encourage you to adjust your mouth and tongue position to better match the Korean audio.

The only consonant that makes this sound is ㄹ.

• ㄹ as a final consonant: 말 (mal) - horse / speech

Sound 5: The [ㅁ] sound

This is another easy one. The [ㅁ] sound is pronounced just like the English ‘m’, the same as its initial sound.

The only consonant that makes this sound is ㅁ.

• ㅁ as a final consonant: 사람 (sa-ram) - person

Sound 6: The [ㅂ] sound

The [ㅂ] sound is an unreleased [p] sound. Your lips should close to stop the sound, as if you’re about to say ‘p’, but you don’t release the puff of air.

The consonants that make this sound are: ㅂ, ㅍ.

• ㅂ as a final consonant: 밥 (bap) - rice / meal
• ㅍ as a final consonant: 앞 (ap) - front

Tips

Try pronouncing map very slowly. You’ll notice that at the very end, you push air out of your mouth to make the [p] sound. To pronounce ㅂ or ㅍ you do the same thing, but stop before making that puff of air.

Sound 7: The [ㅇ] sound

As you learned in Lesson 1, the consonant ㅇ is silent in the initial position but makes an [ng] sound in the final position, like the ‘ng’ in “singing”.

The only consonant that makes this sound is ㅇ.

• ㅇ as a final consonant: 강 (gang) - river

Quiz 2: ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅇ sounds

Time for another quick quiz on the last four sounds.

Double Final Consonants (겹받침)

Sometimes, you’ll see two consonants in the final position, like 닭 (chicken) or 값 (price). These are called 겹받침 (gyeop-bat-chim).

When you see a double final consonant, the rule is simple: only one of them is pronounced. The question is, which one?

Unfortunately, the rules for which consonant to pronounce can be tricky and have exceptions. For now, we’ll cover the general principle.

General Rule: Usually, the first consonant is pronounced.

• 값 (price) has the final consonants ‘ㅂㅅ’. Here, only the first one, ‘ㅂ’, is pronounced. So, it is pronounced [갑] (gap).
• 앉다 (to sit) has ‘ㄵ’. Only the ‘ㄴ’ is pronounced. So, it is pronounced [안따] (an-tta).

Common Exception (Words with ㄺ, ㄻ): Usually the second consonant is pronounced.

• 닭 (chicken) has ‘ㄺ’. Here, the second consonant ‘ㄱ’ is pronounced. So, it is pronounced [닥] (dak).
• 삶 (life) has ‘ㄻ’. The second consonant ‘ㅁ’ is pronounced. So, it is pronounced [삼] (sam).

Don’t worry about memorizing all the double consonant rules right now. The most important thing is to be aware that only one sound is produced.

It’s easy to make the mistake of trying to pronounce both final consonants, as an English speaker, because Koreans won’t easily notice it and thus can’t point out your mistake. Personally, it took me a long time to stop pronouncing the word 밝다 (bak-dda - bright) as if trying to pronounce both the ㄹ and the ㄱ.

Koreans break the rules

The “rule” is that ㄺ is pronounced as ㄱ, but in reality Koreans themselves break this rule. Most Koreans pronounce 밝다 as (bal-dda), even though it’s technically incorrect. As always, rely on your ears more than any rules.

Important Disclaimer!

All these pronunciation rules apply when the final consonant is at the end of a word. In the next lesson, we’ll learn the linking rules that change the pronunciation when a final consonant is followed by a vowel! For example, 옷 is [ot], but 옷이 is pronounced [오시] (o-si).

Quiz 3: Double Final Consonants

Final Quiz

Let’s put it all together! This quiz will test your knowledge of all 7 final consonant sounds. Try to get a good score before moving on. Good luck!

All words

Here is a chart of all the words in this lesson. I suggest spending some time trying to memorize these words. These are all very common words and studying them will help you remember the final consonant sounds.

Some of these you have seen before in Lesson 2 and Lesson 3. Some are new.

You will learn the tta sound found in 앉다 (an-tta) and 밝다 (bak-tta) in Lesson 6.