Consonant Assimilation

The nasal consonants are ㄴ and ㅁ. To keep pronunciation easy and flowing some consonants get changed before these two consonants as shown below :

1) Some p-based sounds become ‘m’:
    ㅂ, ㅍ becomes ㅁ sound

2) Some t, s, ch, and h-based sounds become ‘n’:
    ㄷ, ㅌ, ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅎ becomes ㄴ sound

3) k/g based sounds become ‘ng’, like in English singer (not sin-ger)
    ㄱ, ㅋ, ㄲ becomes ㅇ sound

Examples :

Actual Spelling	Sound	Actual Pronounce	Sound
입니다	ip-ni-da	임니다	im-ni-da
있는데	iss-neun-de	인는데	in-neun-de
일학년	il-hak-nyeon	이랑년	i-lang-nyeon

ㄹ also has its own assimilation rules. If ㄹ and ㄴ come together, the ㄹ wins (don’t say the ㄴ at all). It means the n BECOMES an l. If ㄹ comes before an ‘ｉ’ or ‘y’ sound the ㄹ sound is doubled. More of an ‘l’ sound than an ‘r’ sound.

ㄹ + ㄴ becomes double ㄹ (l) sound

ㄹ + (이, 야, 여, 유, etc.) becomes double ㄹ (l) sound

Examples :

Actual Spelling	Sound	Actual Pronounce	Sound
진리	jin-ri	질리	jil-ri
곤란	kon-lan	골란	kol-lan
팔년	pal-nyeon	팔련	pal-lyeon
서울역	seo-ul-yeok	서울력	seo-ul-lyeok

These changes are made to keep pronunciation economical.

Have you ever wondered how Koreans seem to be able to speak so fast? This is one of the reason.

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