안녕하세요~ 토미입니다!
Today, I will teach you how to correctly distinguish and pronounce plain, strong, and tense consonants.
Many Korean learners may suffer some setbacks in the early or later stage of learning Korean pronunciation.
One of the biggest reasons would be the similar sounding consonants in Korean, which are called plain, aspirated, and tense sounds.
Each of these is called 평음, 격음, 경음 or 된소리 in Korean.
These consonants sound similar to foreign people who have just started learning Korean.
Therefore, they often struggle to recognize the differences.
I will give you a tip on differentiating and pronouncing them correctly.
In this video, I will show you plain, aspirated, and tense consonants, respectively, and compare each other.
그럼 시작할게요！
Plain Consonants (평음)
First, let me quickly explain the definition of plain, aspirated, and tense sounds.
Plain consonants (평음) are the standard sound like 가 나 다 라 마 바 사 아 자.
They sound very soft compared to aspirated or tense sounds.
Aspirated Consonants (격음)
Aspirated consonants (격음) are pronounced with a lot of air.
For example, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, and ㅊ are the derived form of the plain consonants ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, and ㅈ, respectively, where one minor stroke is added.
These sounds are pronounced with more air than plain sounds.
You can use a tissue to check how much air popped out from your mouth.
Put a tissue before your mouth and see how it moves when you pronounce an aspirated sound.
If it moves a lot, then it means that you pronounced it correctly.
First, plain sounds.
가 다 바 자
Can you see the tissue move just a little bit?
카 타 파 차
Did you know the tissue swings a lot?
It is like you are punching tissue with the air from your mouth.
Another critical point is the pitch.
Aspirated sounds are pronounced with a higher pitch than plain sounds.
가 / 카
다 / 타
바 / 파
자 / 차
Raising the pitch a little bit is natural when you pronounce aspirated sounds.
Tense consonants (경음/된소리)
Tense consonants ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ are derived form the plain consonants ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅈ by doubling the letter.
These tense consonants (경음 or 된소리) require the more substantial use of muscle but barely produce air.
It is like you hold your breath or block the air in your throat.
If you pronounce it correctly, the tissue before your mouth will not move.
가 / 카 / 까
다 / 타 / 따
바 / 파 / 빠
사 / 싸
자 / 차 / 짜
Also, their pitch is the highest among plain and aspirated consonants.
So, at this time, you can pay attention to the pitch.
가 / 카 / 까
다 / 타 / 따
바 / 파 / 빠
사 / 싸
자 / 차 / 짜
Can you see that tense consonants have a pitch that is one level higher than plain and strong consonants?
The difference in pitch is very obvious.
As you can see, it is important to understand the amount of air you let out from your mouth and the different pitch levels.
It is easily overlooked and even not written in some reference books, nor even native speakers teach you because they lower or raise the pitch unconsciously.
Therefore, you can pay more attention to the pitch and make yourself understand more easily.
Some of you may even think you don’t have to feel pressured to use the correct pronunciation because you are a foreigner.
However, if you pronounce words wrong, the meaning of the words changes a lot, and you could confuse Korean people.
So here are some examples of sets of similar-sounding words with entirely different meanings.
기 / 키 / 끼
기 / 키 / 끼
기 / 키 / 끼
기 means “energy,” 키 means “height,” 끼 means “talent.”
달 [dal] vs. 탈 딸 [ddal] 달 [dal] vs. 탈 딸 [ddal] 달 [dal] vs. 탈 딸 [ddal]
Here, 달 [dal] means “moon,” 탈 means a “mask,” and 딸 [ddal] means a “daughter.”
비 [bi] 피 [pi] 삐
비 [bi] 피 [pi] 삐
비 [bi] 피 [pi] 삐
비 [bi] means “rain.”
피 [pi] means “blood.”
삐 is not a word, but Korean people often use it for sound effects like 삐이익 and 삐이익.
덕 턱 [teok] vs. 떡 [tteok/ddeok]
덕 / 턱 / 떡
덕 / 턱 / 떡
덕 / 턱 / 떡
덕 means “virtue,” 턱 [teok] means “chin,” 떡 [tteok/ddeok] means “rice cake.”
살 / 쌀
살 / 쌀
살 / 쌀
살 means “flesh,” and 쌀 means “rice.”
자다 / 차다 / 짜다
자다 / 차다 / 짜다
자다 / 차다 / 짜다
자다 means “to sleep”, 차다 means “to be cold”, 짜다 means “to be salty”.
Summary
To summarize, when you pronounce plain consonants, the tissue doesn’t swing so much, but the tissue swings a lot for strong consonants.
For tense consonants, you hold your breath in your throat to pronounce so the tissue does not move so much.
When it comes to pitch, plain consonants are neutral, strong consonants are higher than plain consonants, and tense consonants have the highest pitch among all.
It could be a slight pronunciation difference.
But Korean people differentiate each pronunciation.
So, if you mix them up, it is hard for Korean people to understand what you are saying.
The more you practice these three pronunciations, the more you understand the difference.
So, let’s keep up your good work!
Have fun learning Korean!
그럼 오늘도 행복 가득, 웃음 가득한 하루 되세요！ 한국어 화이팅, 화이팅, 화이팅！！
