Confusing Double Consonant Sounds In Korean

Guys, guys, guys! Do you know that Talk To Me In Korean is on sale? Really? when you actually romanize them? So, this is one reason, like, we keep mentioning this fact that romanization is not so good. They're not really, like, accurate. But anyway, even after learning 한글, even after knowing the proper sounds or, like, what they should sound like, it can be sometimes confusing to try to figure out what this sound actually represents. For example, when you hear things like 가, are you actually absolutely sure, So, let me try to explain how to distinguish these sounds, similar sounds, and also how to practice pronouncing these sounds a little more naturally. For convenience, I will not refer to these consonants as their, well, using their actual names, okay? Using their actual 한글 names. I will just add the vowel ㅏ after that. So, I will say things like Okay? There are a few sets of similar sounding consonants. So, the first set we can talk about is Now, you probably know what I'm talking about. These can sound very similar. So, in traditional romanization, 가 is romanized as GA and 가 is romanized as KA and 가 is romanized as KKA or sometimes in some books, GGA. But, how do you actually distinguish these three sounds? So, 가 is the most standard, well, the basic sound. It's somewhere between GA and KA. So, you base off of 가 and then you make it a little bit more aspirated. So, by that, I mean you add a little bit more air and explosion. The pitch is right here and you make it a little more high-pitched. A little more air, okay? And then, I think the most confusing part for many Korean learners is the difference between Isn't that the case? How do you actually pronounce these things differently? So, 가 is 가 plus a little more air. 가 is a little higher in pitch and a little bit more explosive and that becomes 가. So, of course you could, but there's not a good way to actually say 가 in a very low pitch. So, let me try that. It sounds really awkward and I feel awkward. It has to be 가, higher. Even somebody with a very deep voice will actually pronounce 가 in a relatively high pitch. So, 가, 가, 가. If you actually see these consonants, similar consonants in the concept of different pitches, things might get a little more clear. So, 가, 가, 가. But even all this explanation might not work if you don't compare these actual letters side by side. So, here's a little practice I've prepared for you. 가 and using the same approach we can look at the other sets so let's look at na ta ta and da and learn how to distinguish them when you actually pronounce them so the difference between na and ta is that when you pronounce ta you say it more abruptly na ta na ta na has a little more of a run-up into it like na but ta is very abrupt na ta na ta and the difference between ta and ta is more air ta ta you allow more air to escape your mouth ta ta ta ta and as a result the pitch will go a little higher and now ta this one is a result of adding more explosiveness and higher pitch to either ta or ta ta ta ta ta ta here's another exercise and now to the remaining two sets of sa ja cha ja or sa and also ma pa pa pa the similar or the same approach can be applied so basically everything is a matter of how much more air how much more explosiveness how much more high is added to the previous step of the sound so ta ta ta ta or sa so again so there is not really many natural ways to say ta or sa in a low pitch like it's really unnatural you could do it it's unnatural so I'm not saying that you must make it high-pitched but naturally it's a natural outcome of trying to make those sounds it's a little higher pitch so if you're trying to say ta but the other person doesn't understand you try it at a higher pitch and they might understand you a little better try with a little more explosiveness in your sound like ja ja instead of making it sound softer like cha cha cha okay and it's the same with ma pa pa pa it goes up in pitch so here are two more exercises using ta ta ta ta ta and ma pa pa pa here you go ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Okay, so that was our little lesson, quick lesson on possibly similar sounding letters to Korean learners. But all this explanation will be meaningless unless you actually try to listen to a lot of stuff in Korean, listen to a lot of Korean people having conversations. And we have, as you know, a ton of listening materials on our site available, either through the 이야기 series or through many, many hundreds of videos that we've put out. So please visit our website at talkkoreankorean.com. And if you want to study with our textbooks and e-books and audio books, please visit our online bookstore at mykoreanstore.com for awesome stuff. Thank you so much for studying with us and spreading the word about us. We will see you in the next video lesson. 감사합니다. Bye!