You know the word. You have read it twenty times. Then a Korean says it and you hear nothing you recognise.
That is not your ears and it is not your vocabulary. Korean is written in blocks but spoken in a stream, and this week you learn the nine places where the two part company.
1 · A consonant with a vowel behind it never stays put
If a block ends in a consonant and the next block begins with ㅇ — which is silent — the consonant slides across. This single rule is responsible for most of what learners fail to catch.
| Written | Said | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 한국어 | 한구거 | Korean language |
| 옷이 | 오시 | the clothes (subject) |
| 꽃이 | 꼬치 | the flower (subject) |
| 앉아요 | 안자요 | sits |
| 읽어요 | 일거요 | reads |
| 맛있어요 | 마시써요 | it is delicious |