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 |
2 · Double finals send only the second one
A block with two consonants underneath keeps the first and sends the second across. That is why 앉아요 is 안자요 and not 안차요 or 앋자요.
| Written | Said | What moved |
|---|---|---|
| 앉아요 | 안자요 | ㅈ moved, ㄴ stayed |
| 읽어요 | 일거요 | ㄱ moved, ㄹ stayed |
| 없어요 | 업써요 | ㅅ moved and tensed |
| 값이 | 갑씨 | ㅅ moved and tensed |
3 · Hearing it is one skill, writing it is another
The hard part of dictation is not the sound — it is going back from the sound to the spelling. You hear 마시써요 and you have to write 맛있어요. That trip is made by recognising the word, not by analysing the sound.
Everything in this one runs together
Day 1 words
How is 옷이 said?
How is 읽어요 said?
You hear 우서요. Write the word the way it is spelled.
Before the quiz
- I can predict what happens when a final consonant meets ㅇ.
- I know which of two stacked consonants moves.
- I know why 없어요 comes out tense.
- I write the spelling, not the sound.