Practice Korean (South Korea) pronunciation.

What makes Korean pronunciation hard

Korean splits every stop into three: plain, tense and aspirated. English hears all three as one sound, but for Korean speakers 불, 뿔 and 풀 are three different words.

• p p͈ pʰ

  Plain, tense and aspirated

  Plain is soft and slightly breathy, tense is tight with no breath, aspirated has a strong puff of air. 불 is fire, 뿔 is a horn, 풀 is grass.

  불, 뿔, 풀, 달, 딸, 탈

• ʌ o

  ㅓ and ㅗ

  ㅓ is an open, unrounded “uh”; ㅗ is a rounded “o”. Keep your lips relaxed for ㅓ.

  거, 고, 서울, 소리

• ɾ l

  ㄹ

  Between vowels ㄹ is a light flap; at the end of a syllable it is an L.

  나라, 달, 서울