When Korean borrows a foreign word, it faces a problem: several sounds English takes for granted — f, v, z, th — simply do not exist in the Korean inventory. So Korean substitutes the nearest sound it does have, and it does this systematically, under an official standard called the 외래어 표기법 (oeraeeo pyogibeop, "loanword transcription rules"). Learning these substitutions turns loanword spelling from a guessing game into a decodable system — and explains why one Hangul spelling can map back to several different English words. This page assumes you know the Korean consonant series (plain, aspirated, and tense).
The core sound substitutions
Here is the map of the foreign sounds Korean lacks and the Hangul letters it borrows for them.
| Foreign sound | Hangul | Example | RR | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| f | ㅍ | 커피 | keopi | coffee |
| v | ㅂ | 비디오 | bidio | video |
| z | ㅈ | 재즈 | jaejeu | jazz |
| th (as in "think" / "this") | ㅅ / ㄷ | 스미스 | seumiseu | Smith |
| r and l | ㄹ | 라디오 | radio | radio |
Two of these mappings are merges — two English sounds landing on one Hangul letter — and they matter most because they are lossy.
f and p both become ㅍ. There is no f in Korean, so it borrows the aspirated ㅍ.
커피에 설탕 넣지 마세요.
keopie seoltang neochi maseyo
Please don't put sugar in the coffee.
b and v both become ㅂ. No v either, so it borrows the plain ㅂ.
주말에 비디오 게임만 했어요.
jumare bidio geimman haesseoyo
I just played video games all weekend.
그 배우는 텔레비전에 자주 나와요.
geu baeuneun tellebijeone jaju nawayo
That actor is on TV a lot.
z becomes ㅈ.
저는 재즈를 정말 좋아해요.
jeoneun jaejeureul jeongmal joahaeyo
I really love jazz.
Both English r and l become ㄹ. Korean has a single liquid consonant, ㄹ, which covers both. So "right" and "light" would both start with 라-, and Korean cannot distinguish them in spelling at all.
라디오에서 그 노래가 나왔어요.
radioeseo geu noraega nawasseoyo
That song came on the radio.
The plain-only rule (no tense consonants)
This is the rule that surprises everyone, and it is a firm, deliberate policy: loanwords are spelled with plain and aspirated consonants only. The tense series ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ is not used — even when the English sound is clearly tense.
English bus has a tense-sounding /b/ to Korean ears, and many people actually say 뻐스. But the official spelling is 버스, with plain ㅂ. Likewise "Paris" is officially 파리 with plain ㅍ, even though 빠리 is extremely common in speech.
파리에 한 번 가 보고 싶어요.
parie han beon ga bogo sipeoyo
I'd love to visit Paris someday.
Final consonants gain a vowel
Korean syllable blocks can only end in a limited set of sounds, and even those cannot host the crisp final consonants English piles on. So an English final consonant that cannot serve as a Korean batchim gets a vowel added after it — usually 으, sometimes 이. This is the same syllable-fitting pressure described on the syllable blocks page.
| English | Korean | RR | Added vowel |
|---|---|---|---|
| cake | 케이크 | keikeu | ...크 (k + 으) |
| service | 서비스 | seobiseu | ...스 (s + 으) |
| juice | 주스 | juseu | ...스 (s + 으) |
생일 케이크에 초를 꽂았어요.
saengil keikeue choreul kkojasseoyo
I put candles on the birthday cake.
The same vowel-insertion breaks up initial and internal clusters: Smith has no vowel between s-m, so Korean adds one — 스미스, and the th lands on ㅅ.
저기 스미스 씨가 오네요.
jeogi seumiseu ssiga oneyo
Here comes Mr. Smith.
Common Mistakes
1. Inventing tense-consonant spellings for emphatic English sounds. The tense series is off-limits in loanwords, no matter how the English sounds or how people speak.
❌ 뻐스 정류장이 어디예요?
Incorrect spelling — loanwords never use tense ㅃ.
✅ 버스 정류장이 어디예요?
beoseu jeongnyujangi eodiyeyo
Where's the bus stop? (plain ㅂ, per the 외래어 표기법)
2. Reaching for ㅎ to spell f. English f maps to ㅍ, not ㅎ. Coffee is 커피, never ×커히.
❌ 커히 한 잔 주세요.
Incorrect — f is ㅍ, not ㅎ; 'coffee' is 커피.
✅ 커피 한 잔 주세요.
keopi han jan juseyo
One coffee, please.
3. Cramming a final consonant into a batchim. English cake can't end in a bare ㅋ block; the k needs a vowel after it.
❌ 케익 하나 주세요.
Incorrect — the final k needs an added vowel: 케이크.
✅ 케이크 하나 주세요.
keikeu hana juseyo
One cake, please.
4. Expecting Korean to distinguish r from l. Both are ㄹ. There is no spelling that separates "rice" from "lice" or "fry" from "fly" — Korean simply merges them.
5. Expecting dedicated letters for f, v, z, or th. There are none. They borrow ㅍ, ㅂ, ㅈ, and ㅅ/ㄷ respectively. Hunting for a special "f letter" is a dead end — the substitution is the system.
Key Takeaways
- The 외래어 표기법 maps missing foreign sounds onto Hangul: f → ㅍ, v → ㅂ, z → ㅈ, th → ㅅ/ㄷ, and both r and l → ㄹ.
- Several mappings are merges (f/p, b/v, r/l), so one Hangul spelling can back-map to multiple English sounds — decoding is lossy.
- No tense consonants in loanwords: it's 버스 not 뻐스, 파리 not 빠리 — a deliberate plain-only policy, even where speech differs.
- English final consonants gain a vowel (usually 으): cake → 케이크, service → 서비스.
- These rules operate on the loanwords you meet everywhere — learn the substitutions and the spellings become predictable.
Now practice Korean
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Korean→Related Topics
- Loanwords 외래어 & Konglish 콩글리시TOPIK 1 — Korean's large English-derived vocabulary, written phonetically in Hangul — and 'Konglish,' English-sourced words used in un-English ways, plus why your familiar words are hard to recognize by ear.
- The Plain Series 평음: ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ ㅅ ㅈ and the SonorantsTOPIK 1 — The lax consonants ㄱㄷㅂㅅㅈ plus the sonorants ㄴㅁㅇㄹ and ㅎ, with each place of articulation and the single most important rule: the plain stops voice automatically between vowels (부부 → 'bubu'), so g/k is never a choice you make.
- The Aspirated Series 격음: ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅊTOPIK 1 — The aspirated consonants ㅋㅌㅍㅊ — each a plain letter plus one stroke, meaning one strong puff of air — and why English speakers must aspirate hard and consistently in every position, unlike English p/t/k that only puff word-initially.
- The Tense Series 경음: ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ (된소리)TOPIK 1 — The tense consonants ㄲㄸㅃㅆㅉ — written as doubled letters and produced with a tightened, breathless glottis — completing the three-way contrast that English has no equivalent for (자다 / 차다 / 짜다).
- Building a Syllable Block 음절TOPIK 1 — Korean letters are never written in a line — they cluster into square syllable blocks (음절), each an onset + vowel + optional final consonant; the real skill is decomposing a block back into its ordered letters, not memorizing it as a picture.