Consonant Clusters


Consonant cluster: a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel.

In Korean, there are eleven legal consonant clusters (double final consonants): ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄶ, ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㄿ, ㅀ, ㅄ.
  • If the letter is followed by a silent ㅇ, the last consonant carries over
    • 낡은 → /날근/
    • 앉은 → /안즌/
    • 삶이 → /살미/
  • The final ㅎ turns the following ㄱ,ㄷ,ㅂ, ㅈ into their aspirated forms: ㅋ,ㅌ,ㅍ,ㅊ
    • 않고 → /안코/
    • 싫다 → /실타/
  • Other than those two case above, one of the two final consonants become silent
    • ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㅄ: the second letter is silent (first letter pronounced)
      • 몫 → /목/
      • 값 → /갑/
      • 여덟 → /여덜/
    • ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄿ: the first letter is silent (second letter pronounced)
      • 닭 → /닥/
      • 삶 → /삼/
  • If ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅈ follows a consonant cluster, they are pronounced with their double sound
    • 앉고 → /안꼬/
    • 읽다 → /익따/
  • Consonant clusters are also subject to consonant assimilations.
    • 읽는 → 익는 (ㄱㄴ becomes ㅇㄴ) → /잉는/ 
    • 밟는 → 밥는 (ㅂㄴ becomes ㅁㄴ) → /밤는/
 Many thanks to /u/andresAKU for explaining this so clearly!

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