Basic Consonants (Part 1)
Learn the first 7 consonants: ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ
These first seven consonants (ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ) cover most of the basic Korean sound system. Three of them have a distinctive feature English speakers should note: ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ are 'unaspirated stops' that sound somewhere between English voiced (g, d, b) and voiceless (k, t, p) stops. They sound voiceless at the start of a word but voiced between vowels — which is why 가다 (to go) sounds like 'kada' at the start of a sentence but the same 가 sounds like 'ga' in 우리가.
ㄹ is the famous Korean liquid that is neither English 'l' nor English 'r' — it is a single tap of the tongue that sounds closest to a soft Spanish 'r' or the 'tt' in American English 'butter'. Japanese speakers will find this sound natural because it is essentially the same as Japanese 'ら/り/る/れ/ろ'. For English speakers, this sound requires deliberate practice — pronouncing ㄹ as a hard English 'r' is one of the most common foreign-accent markers in beginner Korean.
Forming Syllable Blocks
Korean is written in syllable blocks: consonant + vowel (CV) or consonant + vowel + consonant (CVC). For example, 가 = ㄱ+ㅏ, 간 = ㄱ+ㅏ+ㄴ. Vertical vowels go to the right of the consonant, horizontal vowels go below.
How It Works
These seven consonants are organised by where in the mouth they are made, and the letter shapes are diagrams of exactly that. ㄱ is a side view of the back of the tongue rising to the soft palate. ㄴ shows the tongue tip touching the ridge behind the upper teeth. ㅁ is the closed mouth seen from the front. ㅅ represents the narrow gap air is forced through. Once you see the letters as anatomy, they stop being arbitrary.
The feature that surprises most learners is that ㄱ, ㄷ and ㅂ are not fixed to one sound. They are 'plain' stops, which means they carry no voicing of their own and simply pick it up from their surroundings. At the start of an utterance there is nothing to voice them, so they come out sounding closer to k, t, p. Sitting between two vowels they get voiced by the vowels on either side and come out closer to g, d, b. This is why 부산 sounds like Busan at the start of a sentence but the same ㅂ in 아버지 sounds like a clear b.
ㄹ is the one sound with no English equivalent. It is a single quick tap of the tongue tip against the ridge behind the teeth — closer to the middle consonant in American 'water' than to either English l or r. As a final consonant it stretches into something more like l.
Where You'll Hear It
With these seven consonants and the vowels from the previous lessons, the majority of basic Korean words become readable. 나 ('I' in casual speech), 너 ('you'), 우리 ('we/our') are the pronouns that structure almost every sentence. 바다 means 'sea', 나라 means 'country', 사람 means 'person' — and 사람 in particular appears in a huge number of compounds.
ㄹ deserves special attention because of how often it appears in words you will meet immediately. 서울 is the capital, 라면 is instant noodles, 사랑 is 'love'. The tap is quick enough that learners often miss it entirely on first hearing and write the word without it.
The plain-stop voicing rule is not academic — it changes how you will hear your own name. Korean speakers pronouncing 김 at the start of a sentence produce something an English ear hears as 'Kim', but in 이김 or mid-phrase, the same syllable softens towards 'gim'. Foreign learners sometimes conclude they are mishearing, or that Korean spelling is inconsistent. It is neither; the spelling is stable and the pronunciation is predictable from position.
Cultural & Language Note
The consonant shapes are diagrams of your mouth. ㄱ shows the back of the tongue rising to the soft palate; ㄴ shows the tongue tip touching behind the teeth; ㅁ is the square of closed lips; ㅅ is the narrow channel air passes through. No other writing system in common use encodes articulation this directly, and it is the main reason linguists cite Hangul as an unusually well-designed script.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
English speakers hear ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ at the start of a word and write them as g, d, b, then are confused when Koreans seem to say k, t, p. Both are right: these are plain consonants that sit between the English pairs and shift depending on position. Do not try to force one or the other. The bigger problem is ㄹ — pronouncing it as an English 'r' with rounded lips is the single most recognisable beginner accent marker.
How to Practice This Lesson
Build blocks rather than memorising letters in isolation. Take ㄱ and run it through all six vowels — 가, 거, 고, 구, 그, 기 — saying each aloud, then do the same with ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ. That is forty-two syllables and it takes about ten minutes, but it converts seven abstract shapes into readable units.
For the voicing rule, pick one word with ㅂ or ㄷ between vowels, such as 아버지 or 어디, and say it at the start of a sentence and then in the middle of one. Listening to your own two versions is far more convincing than reading the rule. For ㄹ, Japanese speakers should simply use their ら行 tap; English speakers should practise the 'tt' of 'butter' and transfer that motion.