Step 4 · Final consonants
Twenty-seven letters, seven sounds
The letter underneath a block is called 받침. This is where beginners stall — and it is smaller than it looks.
27letters can sit there
7sounds they make
So there is nothing here to memorise twenty-seven times. Learn which group a letter falls into and you can read every block — the seven sounds are the ones you already learned as ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅇ.
The seven groups
Every letter in a row sounds the same at the end of a block.ㄱ
[k]5 in this group
ㄱㄲㄳㄺㅋ
ㄴ
[n]3 in this group
ㄴㄵㄶ
ㄷ
[t]7 in this group
ㄷㅅㅆㅈㅊㅌㅎ
ㄹ
[l]5 in this group
ㄹㄼㄽㄾㅀ
ㅁ
[m]2 in this group
ㅁㄻ
ㅂ
[p]4 in this group
ㅂㅄㄿㅍ
ㅇ
[ng]1 in this group
ㅇ
Two rules and that is all
- At the end of a block the sound is cut short — it is held, not released. 밥 ends with the lips closed, not with a puff.
- When the next block starts with ㅇ, the final consonant slides over and is pronounced in full: 먹어요 is said 머거요. That is why the same letter can sound different in a word.
Check: what does it sound like at the end?1 / 6
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