clock icon Created with Sketch. 5 minutes

Lesson 24

Lesson 24. English Loan Words

When loan words are pronounced in a Korean way:

닉네임 [닝네임] nickname
온리 [올리] only

When an English loan word ends in a hard consonant, the 으 sound is added:

마트 [마트] big supermarket (마트 is from the English word, “mart,” but it actually refers to big supermarkets.)
아이스크림 [아이스크림] ice cream
아파트 [아파트] apartment
주스 [주쓰] juice
버스 [버쓰] bus (Some people pronounce this word as 뻐쓰 in everyday conversations.)

In Korean there is no V sound:

티비 [티비] TV (Following the rules of spelling for loan words, the word is spelled 티브이, but in everyday Korean, many people pronounce it this way.)
블로그 [블로그] blog
브이로그 [브이로그] vlog

In Korean there is no R sound:

라디오 [라디오] radio
로맨스 [로맨쓰] romance
라이벌 [라이벌] rival

In Korean there is no F sound:

커피 [커피] coffee
프라이팬 [프라이팬] frypan
팬 [팬] fan

Sometimes F will be pronounced with the breathier ㅎ:

후라이드치킨 [후라이드치킨] (Following the rules of spelling for loan words, the word is spelled 프라이드치킨 but in everyday Korean, many people pronounce it this way.)
화이팅 [화이팅] (Following the rules of spelling for loan words, the word is spelled 파이팅 but in everyday Korean, many people pronounce it this way.)

Since Korean does not have any hard ending consonants, the following words end up being pronounced with “이” as if they were also pronouncing the e seen in the English spelling of the words. 

오렌지 [오렌지] orange
에지 [에찌] edge

The following words are pronounced as if the w and h were switched.

화이트 [화이트] white
휠체어 [휠체어] wheelchair