confused abt which letter comes first "g" or "k" etc.

[rosieannmariah3057]

Hello!

I need help knowing which letter sound is considered first or last and which vowels sound to use in a word.

For the word 고구마 "ko-gu-ma" how can I tell when the Hangul letter ㄱ for "g/k" is to be pronounced first as a "g" or last as a "k". That word 고구마 when written looks like it should be "ko-KU-ma" not "ko-GU-ma".

Also, why is the ㅗ vowel pronounced as "oh" also pronounced as "ew" and how can I know what sound applies when?

Thanks for any help!

[kc101com]

Hey Rosie,


Thank you for your comment and we get where the confusions come from!

It is always hard part to romanize the Korean words as it is original and hard to perfectly replace in differently language on its sound.

But I would say 고구마 in perfect romanization would be [goguma] considering how it is written.

ㅗ also has [oh] sound instead of [ew] as [ew] would be more like ㅜ instead of ㅗ!:)

Hope this gives you a bit of insight and please let us know anytime you have more questions!:D



Thank you

Madison
Team Koreanclass101.com