Hi every body.
What is the difference between ㄱ and ㅋ in pronunciation? Which one is more similar to the “g” ?
Thanks
1 Like
This isn’t really a question that is answered as easily as you might expect. The simplest answer is that ㄱ is most similar to the G sound and ㅋ is more similar to the K sound.
Not to confuse you too much, but there is yet another character, ㄲ, that is also translated most accurately to G. And more annoying still, ㄱ can be closer to the K sound depending on where it’s placed. I find that this happens if it’s placed at the beginning of a word. For example, 강남 is most often written as Gangnam in English. Yet it isn’t unlikely that you’ll also see it written as Kangnam.
2 Likes
Thanks friend… I’m a bit confused now, but I hope more practice helps me learn it well
If you are from the States or Canada, this comic will be very useful to you at this point. For people with other accents it’s somewhat less effective but it can still help you a lot.
One more thing… It took me a while to find it but I eventually did. Take a look at this http://mykoreancoach.educasiainc.com/
This will really help you nail down those difficult sounds if you spend time on it.
Korean seems to separate the stop consonants at a different place than Indo-European languages. We have pairs p/b, k/g, and t/d, that are separated by whether they’re voiced (p, k, g) or unvoiced (b, g, d). In Korean, it seems, the basic stop consonant for each of those is actually right at the middle, on the fence between voiced and unvoiced. That is, their most commonly used stop consonants are a p/b sound (ㅂ), a k/g sound (ㄱ), and a t/d sound (ㄷ) - each one right in between those two letters in English. They vary a bit based on whether they’re at the beginning or end of a syllable, and what comes after, so for example ㄱ can sound a bit more g-like or a bit more k-like in different contexts, but I think they best way to understand them is to realize that the sharp distinction we make between voiced and unvoiced stops is not a meaningful separator of different consonants in Korean.
Korean does have letters for a “hard k” (ㅋ) and “hard g” (ㄲ), and similar ones for the other pairs, but I’ve noticed that those are rarely used in real Korean words. They seem to be used most for transliterating foreign words, especially English.
그래요? ㅋㅋ
끝나다, 가끔, 꿈, 꾸다,밖에, 볶음, 가깝다, (으)니까 잠깐만요, , just to name a few.
But when it comes to ㅋ it is almost used for “k” in loan words and foreign names. The exception I think is at the end of a syllable (케익).
But of course, there are also Korean words with, ㅋ, but they are not as frequent as ㄱ.
hey, don’t worry. it’s completely normal to be confused and unable to distinguish between those at first. it comes with practice and exposure to hangeul.
try this course https://www.memrise.com/course/124459/hangeul-hangeul-korean-alphabet-audio/
it’s a lot longer and more thorough than the other alphabet courses. levels 2, 3 & 4 are ㄱ, ㄲ & ㅋ. just listen and let your ears adjust to these foreign sounds.
1 Like