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Pronunciation Rules

The Korean letter ㄷ has 6 different pronunciation variants.

t

/ stay /

ㄷ is the first letter in a word

ㄷ (ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ) is the last letter in a word

ㄷ → consonant (except ㄴ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅎ)

Korean

다리

숟가락

받다

갖다

같다

Transcription

[ 다리 ]

[ 숟까락 ]

[ 받따 ]

[ 옫 ]

[ 갇따 ]

[ 갇따 ]

English

bridge

spoon

to receive

clothes *

to have, to hold *

same, identical *

* See also Batchim ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ

n

/ sun /

ㄷ → consonants ㄴ, ㄹ, ㅁ

Korean

곧 내려가요

곧 만나요

Transcription

[ 곤 내려가요 ]

[ 곤 만나요 ]

English

I'll be down soon

See you soon

/ tall /

ㄷ → consonant ㅎ

Consonant ㅎ → ㄷ

Korean

싫다

Transcription

[ 실타 ]

English

to dislike, to hate

* See also Batchim

tt

/ stock /

Consonant (except ㄴ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅇ, ㅎ) → ㄷ

Korean

어학당

받다

찾다

Transcription

[ 어학땅 ]

[ 받따 ]

[ 찯따 ]

English

language school

to receive

to find, to search *

* See also Batchim ㅈ, How to read

d

/ done /

Consonant ㄴ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅇ → ㄷ

Vowel → ㄷ → vowel or ㅇ (except 이 sound)

Korean

하다

반드시

살다

사람들

강도

Transcription

[ 하다 ]

[ 반드시 ]

[ 살다 ]

[ 사람들 ]

[ 강도 ]

English

to do

certainly

to live

people

strength

j

/ jeans /

Vowel → ㄷ → 이

Korean

굳이

Transcription

[ 구지 ]

English

obstinately

Quick reference (click to open)

Vowels: a, e, i, o, u

Consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j

Syllable: Bra-zil (2 syllables), Ar-gen-ti-na (4), In-di-a (3), Viet-nam (2), thin-king (2), beau-ti-ful (3), good (1)

Batchim: is a final consonant in a syllable. → Bra-zil (batchim: 'l'), Ar-gen-ti-na (batchims: 'r' and 'n'), In-di-a ('n'), Viet-nam ('t', 'm')

Romanization: is a conversion of text (not pronunciation ! ) from different writing system (Korean, Arabic, Russian, etc.) to the Roman (Latin) alphabet.

IPA: is an alphabetic system of phonetic (pronunciation) notation.

Noun: road, user, sister, table, sky

Pronoun: I, my, we, you, they, her

Verb: to go, to study, to think, to feel

Adjective: cold, kind, hungry, curious, expensive

Adverb: quickly, nicely, never, exactly, urgently

Preposition: from, to, on, in, with, till

Conjuction: and, because, if, but, while

Declarative sentence: I learn Korean.

Interrogative sentence: Do you learn Korean?

Imperative sentence: You must learn Korean!

Exclamative sentence: Wow, you learn Korean!

Verb / Adj. stem in Korean: part of a verb or adj. which is left after removing the last syllable -다 ( e.g. 가다 → 가, 예쁘다 → 예쁘, 듣다 → 듣 ).