You already know the headline: any batchim, before a pause or a consonant, neutralizes to one of seven sounds. This page is the map — exactly which spellings collapse to which sound. The trick is not to memorize a random list. The seven sounds fall out of where in the mouth the consonant is made, so once you group by place of articulation, the whole system becomes predictable and, for most letters, obvious.
The map at a glance
| 대표음 | Place made | Spellings that collapse to it | Spelled → pronounced |
|---|---|---|---|
| [k] ㄱ | velar (soft palate) | ㄱ, ㅋ, ㄲ | 국 → [국], 부엌 → [부억], 밖 → [박] |
| [n] ㄴ | alveolar (ridge) | ㄴ | 산 → [산] |
| [t] ㄷ | alveolar / dental | ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ, ㅎ | 옷 → [옫], 낮 → [낟], 꽃 → [꼳], 밭 → [받] |
| [l] ㄹ | alveolar | ㄹ | 달 → [달] |
| [m] ㅁ | labial (lips) | ㅁ | 밤 → [밤] |
| [p] ㅂ | labial (lips) | ㅂ, ㅍ | 밥 → [밥], 앞 → [압] |
| [ŋ] ㅇ | velar (soft palate) | ㅇ | 강 → [강] |
Why place of articulation explains it
The seven sounds are not seven arbitrary survivors. Line them up by place and a clean grid appears: at each of three places in the mouth there is one stop and one nasal, plus a single liquid.
| Place | Stop coda | Nasal coda | Liquid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Labial (lips) | [p] ㅂ (ㅂ, ㅍ) | [m] ㅁ | |
| Alveolar (tongue-ridge) | [t] ㄷ (ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ, ㅎ) | [n] ㄴ | [l] ㄹ |
| Velar (soft palate) | [k] ㄱ (ㄱ, ㅋ, ㄲ) | [ŋ] ㅇ |
That is the whole system: three stops (k, t, p), three matching nasals (m, n, ŋ), and one liquid (l) — seven. When an obstruent lands in the batchim slot, it keeps its place but loses everything else — its aspiration, its tenseness, its friction, its affrication — flattening to the plain stop made at that same place. Everything velar becomes [k]; everything labial becomes [p]; everything alveolar-ish becomes [t]. You are not memorizing a list; you are asking one question: where is this consonant made?
The [k] group: ㄱ, ㅋ, ㄲ
All three velar obstruents flatten to a plain unreleased [k]. The aspiration of ㅋ and the tenseness of ㄲ simply vanish at the end of a syllable:
부엌
bueok
kitchen — the aspirated ㅋ becomes plain [k]: [부억].
밖
bak
outside — the tense ㄲ becomes plain [k]: [박].
The self-sounds: ㄴ [n], ㄹ [l], ㅁ [m]
The nasals ㄴ and ㅁ and the liquid ㄹ are sonorants — they never had aspirated or tense partners to begin with — so nothing collapses into them and nothing collapses out of them. In the batchim slot each is simply itself:
산
san
mountain — ㄴ is [n], plain and simple.
달
dal
moon — ㄹ is a clear [l] as a batchim.
밤
bam
night / chestnut — ㅁ is [m].
These three are the easy ones: a coda ㄴ, ㄹ, or ㅁ always sounds exactly like its letter. All the neutralizing action is among the obstruents.
The [t] group: ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ, ㅎ — the big one
This is the group to drill, because it is the largest and the least intuitive. Seven different letters collapse to [t]. Everything made at or just behind the tongue-ridge — the two stops ㄷ, ㅌ, the two fricatives ㅅ, ㅆ, the two affricates ㅈ, ㅊ — plus the glottal odd-one-out ㅎ, all surface as a single unreleased [t]:
옷
ot
clothes — ㅅ → [t]: [옫].
낮
nat
daytime — ㅈ → [t]: [낟].
꽃
kkot
flower — ㅊ → [t]: [꼳].
밭
bat
field — ㅌ → [t]: [받].
This is why 낫 (sickle), 낮 (daytime), 낯 (face), 낟 (grain) and 낱 (a single unit) are all pronounced identically as [낟] in isolation — five spellings, one sound. The lone ㅎ almost never stands alone as a batchim (it lives mostly in 놓다, 좋다, 낳다, where it triggers aspiration on the next syllable rather than surfacing itself), but when it does — as in the letter-name 히읗 — it too is
The [p] group: ㅂ, ㅍ
Both labial stops become a plain unreleased [p]; the aspiration of ㅍ disappears:
밥
bap
rice / a meal — ㅂ is [p]: [밥].
앞
ap
front — the aspirated ㅍ becomes plain [p]: [압].
batchim ㅇ
The letter ㅇ is a chameleon. As an onset it is silent (아 = just "a"); as a batchim it is the velar nasal [ŋ], the "ng" of English "sing." It has no other spelling — [ŋ] is always written ㅇ, and a coda ㅇ is always [ŋ]:
강
gang
river — batchim ㅇ is [ŋ].
사랑
sarang
love — the final ㅇ is [ŋ], never silent.
Only before silence or a consonant
One caution runs through the entire map: neutralization applies only when nothing — or a consonant — follows. The moment a vowel follows, the batchim slides onto it and its true value returns (this is 연음 / resyllabification). So the same ㅋ that flattens to [k] in 부엌 comes back to life in 부엌에:
부엌이 너무 좁아요.
bueoki neomu jobayo
The kitchen is too small. (부엌이 → [부어키] — the ㅋ resurfaces before the vowel)
이 옷이 참 마음에 들어요.
i osi cham maeume deureoyo
I really like this outfit. (옷이 → [오시] — the ㅅ returns as [s], not [t])
So the map on this page describes the batchim in isolation and before consonants. Feed it a vowel and you are in a different regime — the underlying letter, faithfully preserved in the spelling, speaks again.
Common Mistakes
1. Reading a coda ㅅ as [s]. In final position it is [t], not [s].
✗ 옷
Wrong reading 'os' — coda ㅅ neutralizes to [t]: [옫].
✅ 옷
ot
clothes — [옫].
2. Keeping the affricate/aspirate on ㅊ, ㅌ. They flatten to a plain unreleased [t].
✗ 꽃, 밭
Wrong readings 'kkoch' / 'bath' — no affrication or aspiration surfaces in coda position: [꼳], [받].
✅ 꽃 [꼳], 밭 [받]
kkot, bat
flower, field — both end in plain [t].
3. Treating ㅋ, ㄲ as different from ㄱ at the end. All three velars are just [k].
✗ 밖, 부엌
Wrong readings 'bakk' / 'bueokh' — tenseness and aspiration vanish; both are plain [k]: [박], [부억].
✅ 밖 [박], 부엌 [부억]
bak, bueok
outside, kitchen — plain [k].
4. Neutralizing even when a vowel follows. A following vowel resurrects the real consonant — don't apply the map there.
✗ 꽃이
Wrong reading 'kkot-i' — the ㅊ comes back before the vowel: [꼬치].
✅ 꽃이
kkochi
the flower (+ subject particle) — [꼬치].
5. Releasing a coda ㅍ. Like all stop codas it is unreleased — no "ap-uh."
✅ 앞
ap
front — a single closed, unreleased [p].
Key Takeaways
- The seven representative sounds sort by place of articulation: labial → [p]/[m], alveolar → [t]/[n]/[l], velar → [k]/[ŋ].
- [k]: ㄱ, ㅋ, ㄲ. [p]: ㅂ, ㅍ. [t]: ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ, ㅎ — the biggest, least intuitive group, and the one to drill.
- ㄴ [n], ㄹ [l], ㅁ [m] are sonorants and simply stay themselves; a coda ㅇ is [ŋ] (never silent, unlike an onset ㅇ).
- The whole map applies only before a pause or a consonant. A following vowel triggers 연음 and the true consonant returns (부엌 [부억] → 부엌이 [부어키]).
Now practice Korean
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Start learning Korean→Related Topics
- The Final Consonant 받침 and the Seven SoundsTOPIK 1 — The batchim (받침) is the consonant in the bottom slot of a block; any of 27 letters can be written there, but in speech they all neutralize to just seven representative sounds — and Korean coda stops are unreleased — which is a core reason Korean spelling does not equal pronunciation.
- Double & Cluster Batchim ㄲㅆ / ㄳㄵㄺㄻ…TOPIK 2 — The two things that can sit doubled in the bottom slot of a block — true tense consonants (ㄲ, ㅆ) versus two-letter clusters (ㄳ ㄵ ㄺ ㄻ ㅄ …) — and the rule that decides which member you actually pronounce.
- Resyllabification 연음: When Batchim Slides OverTOPIK 1 — The single most important reading rule after learning blocks: a final consonant slides over to fill the empty onset of a following vowel, so the syllable boundaries you see on the page are not the ones you say — 한국어 is spoken [한구거], never 'han-guk-eo'.
- Why Spelling ≠ Pronunciation (Morphophonemic Hangul)TOPIK 1 — Korean spelling keeps each word-part in one constant shape and lets a small set of sound rules derive the pronunciation — so 값 is always written 값 even though it is said [갑], [갑씨], and [감] in different words. This page explains why, so the sound changes feel principled instead of arbitrary.
- The Sound Inventory & the Seven Final ConsonantsTOPIK 1 — The map for the whole Pronunciation group: Korean's 19 consonants built on a three-way plain/tense/aspirated contrast that is NOT English voicing, its vowel system, and the master fact behind every sound-change page — in final (받침) position only seven sounds survive, so spelling and pronunciation systematically diverge.