You may wonder why when you hear Korean words with consonants ㅂ ㄷ ㄱ or ㅈ, sometimes they are b-, d-, g- and j-like, but some other times they are p-, t-, k-, and ch-like respectively. One of the factors effecting their pronunciations is voicing.

Voicing is one of the 3 important concepts for Korean pronunciations. If you are not sure what voicing is, please review this post. In a nutshell, all Korean vowels are always voiced, so are nasal consonants ㅁ ㄴ ㅇ and consonant ㄹ. On the other hand, all other consonants are voiceless when they are at the beginning of a word. As a result, ㅂ ㄷ ㄱ or ㅈ are more p-like, t-like, k-like, and ch-like than b-like, d-like, g-like and j-like respectively at the beginning of a word.

But how about when these consonants are pronounced in between a word? They become fully voiced, i.e., ㅂ ㄷ ㄱ or ㅈ becomes b-, d-, g- and j-like respectively when they are pronounced in between voiced sounds. It explains why, for the same consonant symbol, you may hear different sounds at different situations.

Examples

As you can see from the second set of examples, voicing can apply across word boundary, if the ending consonant needs to be pronounced as ㅂ ㄷ or ㄱ, and the following word begins with a vowel.

Summary of Voicing and Pronunciations of Korean Consonants ㅂ ㄷ ㄱ ㅈ

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