Final Consonants (받침)

A Korean syllable can end in a final consonant called 받침 (batchim). Although 27 letters can sit in the final position, they are all pronounced as only ONE of 7 sounds: [ㄱ], [ㄴ], [ㄷ], [ㄹ], [ㅁ], [ㅂ], [ㅇ]. For example, 옷 (clothes) ends in ㅅ but is pronounced [옫] with a [t] stop. The final consonant is unreleased — you stop the airflow without a puff.

Many different final letters collapse into the same representative sound. As a final consonant: ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ, ㅎ all become [ㄷ] (a [t] stop); ㅋ and ㄲ become [ㄱ] (a [k] stop); ㅍ becomes [ㅂ] (a [p] stop). So 낮 (daytime), 낫 (sickle), and 낟 (grain) all sound identical: [낟].

Some syllables have two final consonants (겹받침), but only ONE is pronounced when the syllable stands alone or is followed by another consonant. Usually you keep one and drop the other: 닭 (chicken) → [닥] keeps ㄱ; 앉다 (to sit) → [안따] keeps ㄴ; 없다 (to not exist) → [업따] keeps ㅂ. When a vowel follows, the dropped consonant links over to the next syllable instead.