Troubles in Pronounciation

[ciarawilliams946425]

I'm an absolute beginner, and as such, one of the first things I want to learn is how to properly pronounce sounds. So there's only a few I'm having trouble figuring out the differences in sound. One is 어 & 오. Next, 여 and 요. Also 으 and 우. They all sound like "o","yo", and "u" respectively. I'm having difficulty pronouncing ㅈ,ㅊ,ㅂ,ㄱand ㄷ. Could someone assist me? Maybe there's a certain English that could better help me understand the right pronunciation?

[fej4955]

Try this internet page
http://www.sayjack.com/korean/hangul/quiz/
I have learned most of the pronunciation from there. I think it took, like, four months or so. If you check more on the section of Korean, there are guides for grammar and pronunciation rules.

What I would recommend, is that you patiently try to listen to the pronunciation and guess what character is being pronunced. That what is little problematic is with the doubble- , single- and asphirated consonants. Learning that might take time.

As always forvo (google it) is an excellent source for any language to check the correct pronunciation.

[korea.innovative]

I'm an absolute beginner, and as such, one of the first things I want to learn is how to properly pronounce sounds. So there's only a few I'm having trouble figuring out the differences in sound. One is 어 & 오. Next, 여 and 요. Also 으 and 우. They all sound like "o","yo", and "u" respectively. I'm having difficulty pronouncing ㅈ,ㅊ,ㅂ,ㄱand ㄷ. Could someone assist me? Maybe there's a certain English that could better help me understand the right pronunciation?

Hey Ciara and Fej!

Thank you for your comment and also help!:)

We are sorry to hear that you find it challenging and it is certainly true. Besides the ones you have pointed out for us are really generic ones that learners find it hard in the beginning.

As Fej well had explained, there exist three types for consonants as well as vowels: regular, aspirated, and fortified.
(e.g. ㄱ,ㅋ,ㄲ)

The reason it may sound confusing is because the aspirated and fortified are based on regular alphabets which have very similar oral structure but more like different accents.

Let me try to answer your questions through making examples of English words!

ㅓ,ㅗ: first ㅓ, thin of U sound from 'Ugly'. Then ㅗ, O as in 'Orange'. Do you see Ugly rather widens your lips while Orange really circles your mouth? Then for,

ㅕ,ㅛ: ㅕ, is one of tricky parts since it is not so commonly-used sounds in English but on the other hand, ㅛ could be easily found from sound as YO from 'YOyo'. for ㅕ, perhaps you would like to think of YEO. it aparts from YO but has tip E sound in it so your tongue is going backward. (e.g. 열)

c.f. for this Korean example, please feel free to check out the pronunciation on our FREE Korean Dictionary - you could also hear the pronunciation!
http://www.koreanclass101.com/korean-dictionary/

ㅡ, ㅜ: for ㅡ, think of growling! you're showing your teath with widened lips but not opened. and you make a sound. For ㅜ, it is fairly easy, when you do 'wooooo' like when you pose with lips stretching out.

Do those explanations help you a bit? Sometimes it becomes really hard to be verbal on such thing.

If you haven't tried yet, please try our Hana Hana Hangul series as well because it goes over quickly but easy to practice pronunciation and so on! you could simply go to,
browse lessons > video lessons > 1 absolute beginner > hana hana hangul videos

and please feel free to follow up with us if you still feel bit confused!;)



Thank you

Madison
Team KoreanClass101.com