Lesson 4

Lesson 4. Compound Consonants as Batchim: Should I pronounce the ㄹ or ㄱ in 읽다?

Out of five double consonants, only ㄲ and ㅆ can be used as 받침, and when they are used as 받침, the pronunciation is the same as the single consonant.

Ex)
박 [박] gourd
밖 [박] outside
엇 [얻] *not a word
었 [얻] *not a word

However, when the following syllable begins with a vowel, you need to pronounce the double consonants.

Ex)
박이 [바기] = 박 (gourd) + -이 (subject marking particle)
밖이 [바끼] = 밖 (outside) + -이 (subject marking particle)
엇을 [어슬] *not a word
었을 [어쓸] *not a word

These 8 compound consonants take on the sound of the first consonant when there is no following syllable: ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄶ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㅀ, ㅄ 

Ex)
넋 [넉] soul, spirit
얹 [언] *not a word
않 [안] *not a word
덟 [덜] *not a word
곬 [골] a (fixed) direction
핥 [할] *not a word
앓 [알] *not a word
없 [업] *not a word

When a syllable that ends with ㄶ or ㅀ is followed by a syllable that starts with ㄱ, ㄷ, or ㅈ, the ㅎ is combined with the following consonant to form the aspirated consonant sound.

Ex)
않지 [안치] = 않다 (to be not) + -지 (suffix)
앓고 [알코] = 앓다 (to suffer) + -고 (suffix)

The compound consonant ㄺ takes on the sound of the second consonant, which is ㄱ.

Ex)
읽 [익] *not a word
읽다 [익따] to read
밝 [박] *not a word
밝다 [박따] to be bright

However, when a VERB stem ends with ㄺ and is followed by a syllable that begins with ㄱ, it is pronounced as ㄹ.

Ex)
읽고 [일꼬] = 읽다 (to read) + -고 (and)
맑게 [말께] = 맑다 (to be clean) + -게 (suffix)

The compound consonant ㄻ takes on the sound of the second consonant, which is ㅁ.

Ex)
젊 [점] *not a word
젊다 [점따] to be young
닮 [담] *not a word
닮다 [담따] to resemble, to take after, to look like

The compound consonant ㄿ takes on the sound of the second consonant, which is ㅍ, but since ㅍ is pronounced as ㅂ when it is used as 받침, it is basically pronounced as ㅂ.

Ex)
읊 [읍] *not a word
읊다 [읍따] to recite

When a compound consonant is followed by a syllable beginning in a vowel, the first consonant works as the 받침, and the second part of the compound consonant becomes part of the following syllable.

Ex)
읽어요. [일거요.] One reads.
앉아요. [안자요.] One sits.
젊어요. [절머요.] One is young.

When it comes to ㄶ and ㅀ, however, ㅎ is not pronounced at all, so the first consonant is combined with the following vowel sound.

Ex)
않아요. [아나요.] One does not...
앓아요. [아라요.] One suffers.

Sentence examples that contain more than one of these sounds:

1. 밖에 젊은 사람은 없어요.
[바께 절믄 사라믄 업써요.]
There is no young person outside.

2. 여덟 명의 학생이 앉아서 책을 읽고 있어요.
[여덜 명의 학쌩이 안자서 채글 일꼬 이써요.]
Eight students are sitting and reading books.