Aspiration and ㅎ weakening

The ‘h’ sound is very weak in English as well as Korean. For example, when you pronounce ‘hour’ it sounds like ‘our’. The ‘ㅎ’ tends to become silent in casual speech between vowels, after the nasal consonants ㄴ and ㅁ, or after the consonant ㄹ. Examples :

Spelling	Pronounciation	Sound	Meaning
좋아요	조아요	jo-a-yo	okay or like it
전화	저놔	jeo-nwa	phone
감히	가미	ka-mi	dare
말해 봐	마래 봐	ma-rae-bwa	tell me

When ㅎ precedes or follows immediately ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ or ㅈ, it becomes silent but making these soft consonants harder (or aspirated):

Softer	Harder	Sound
ㄱ	ㅋ	k(h)
ㄷ	ㅌ	t(h)
ㅂ	ㅍ	p(h)
ㅈ	ㅊ	c(h)

For examples :

Spelling	Pronounciation	Sound	Meaning
축하	추카	chu-kha	celebrate
좋다	조타	jo-tha	like it
입학	이팍	i-phak	admissions
그렇지	그러치	ke-reo-chi	that’s right

You don’t have to think of these sound shifts as a set of rules that you must learn. If you practise saying the syllables quickly, running them together, the reason for the shifts will become obvious, and eventually altering your pronunciation in this way will become natural.

Pronouncing Korean is relatively easy because, apart from these sound shifts, Korean words sound the way they look. As you will be introduced to new words, sentences, and the like, through printed text, it is important that you devote some time to learning Hangeul.

***If you have any confusion, please, don't hesitate to ask me :)


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