Korean → English
English uses 43 sounds. You already own 15 of them from Korean. The other 28 are the work — and 22 of those are the dangerous kind: close enough to something you already say that you will substitute them without hearing yourself do it.
The silent swaps
Your mouth has something close enough to reach for. These survive for years precisely because they sound right to you — the fix is hearing the difference first, not trying harder.
the move: alveolar → dental
English: think · written "th"
Tongue between the teeth, no voice.
Your /s/ is the one in 사람 (person).
the move: alveolar → postalveolar
English: ship · written "sh", "ti (-tion)", "ci", "ssi"
Your /s/ is the one in 사람 (person).
the move: alveolo-palatal → postalveolar
English: church · written "ch", "tch", "tu (nature)"
Your /t͡ɕ/ is the one in 집 (house).
the move: alveolo-palatal → postalveolar
English: judge · written "j", "g (e,i,y)", "dge"
Your /d͡ʑ/ is the one in 아주 (very).
the move: close → near-close
English: sit · written "i", "y", "e (unstressed)"
Your /i/ is the one in 이 (this; two; tooth).
the move: open → near-open
English: cat · written "a"
Between /ɛ/ and /a/; mouth wide.
Your /a/ is the one in 나라 (country).
the move: close → near-close
English: book · written "oo (book)", "u (put)", "oul (could)"
Your /u/ is the one in 우유 (milk).
the move: longer
English: see · written "ee", "ea", "e_e", "ie"
Your /i/ is the one in 이 (this; two; tooth).
the move: longer
English: food · written "oo", "u_e", "ew", "ou (soup)"
Your /u/ is the one in 우유 (milk).
the move: alveolar → labiodental
English: fish · written "f", "ff", "ph", "gh (laugh)"
Your /s/ is the one in 사람 (person).
the move: voiced
English: zoo · written "z", "zz", "s (plural after voiced, between vowels)"
Your /s/ is the one in 사람 (person).
the move: open → open-mid
English: bed · written "e", "ea (bread)"
Your /a/ is the one in 나라 (country).
the move: alveolar → dental, voiced
English: this · written "th (function words, between vowels)"
the, this, that, they, mother, breathe.
Your /s/ is the one in 사람 (person).
the move: alveolar → postalveolar, voiced
English: measure · written "s (measure)", "si (vision)", "ge (beige)"
Your /s/ is the one in 사람 (person).
the move: tap → approximant
English: red · written "r", "rr", "wr"
Silent after vowels in British English (car /kɑː/); pronounced in American.
Your /ɾ/ is the one in 우리 (we; our).
the move: rounded, longer
English: law · written "or", "aw", "au", "al"
Your /ʌ/ is the one in 서울 (Seoul).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
English: make · written "a_e", "ai", "ay", "ei (eight)"
Your /e/ is the one in 네 (yes).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
English: time · written "i_e", "igh", "y", "ie (pie)"
Your /a/ is the one in 나라 (country).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
English: house · written "ou", "ow"
Your /a/ is the one in 나라 (country).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
English: hair · written "air", "are (care)", "ear (bear)"
American: /ɛr/.
Your /e/ is the one in 네 (yes).
the move: open-mid → mid, back → central
English: about · written "any unstressed vowel"
The commonest English vowel. banana = /bəˈnɑːnə/.
Your /ʌ/ is the one in 서울 (Seoul).
Words you may say identically
Two or more English sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
Genuinely new
Nothing in Korean sits close to these. They sound foreign in your mouth — which is the good news: you can hear that you are not saying them yet.
very
Closest thing you own: — but alveolar → labiodental, voiced.
car
Closest thing you own: — but open-mid → open, longer.
hot
American: /ɑ/.
Closest thing you own: — but open-mid → open, rounded.
near
American: /ɪr/.
Closest thing you own: — but it glides, yours would hold still, close → near-close.
boy
Closest thing you own: — but it glides, yours would hold still, rounded.
home
American: /oʊ/.
Closest thing you own: — but it glides, yours would hold still, open-mid → mid, back → central.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Korean | English | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed, phrase melody | Stress-timed |
| Stress | None at word level. No syllable is reduced and no vowel becomes a schwa; every syllable is said in full. What an English ear hears as stress is the phrase-initial rise. | Contrastive, and unmarked in writing — the single most common cause of not being understood. Dozens of noun/verb pairs differ only in where the stress goes, and every unstressed vowel collapses to /ə/. |
What you have that English doesn't
19 sounds with no job in English. They are not mistakes — but they are where an accent leaks in, because a sound you own is easy to use when a hard one is due.
The honest caveat
This is a prediction from the shape of two sound systems, not a recording of you. It says what your inventory makes likely — it cannot know that your Korean has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned English from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
Other first languages: French · Spanish · Portuguese · German · Italian · Georgian · Russian · Hindi · Mandarin Chinese · Cantonese · Vietnamese · Japanese · Malay · Turkish