Tense Consonants 1

Korean Alphabet 2

Course 2 · Chapter 1 · Tense Consonants 1

ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ — The Doubled Letters

In Korean Alphabet 1 you learned 24 basic letters, and you met the idea that many consonants come in sets: a plain letter (ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ) and an aspirated one with a puff of air (ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ). This chapter adds the third member of each set, the tense letter. Three of them have a simple look: the plain letter written twice, ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ. The other two, ㅆ and ㅉ, come in Chapter 2.

Your Three Letters — ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ

Plain, Aspirated, Tense: One Sound, Three Ways

Wikipedia's Hangul page counts 51 jamo: the 24 basic ones, and then letters made by "duplications" and "modifications and combinations". Duplication gives 5 additional consonants: ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ, the tense set. Its Korean phonology page describes the tense consonants as produced "with a partially constricted glottis and additional subglottal pressure" and says that vowels before tense (and aspirated) consonants "tend to be shorter" than before plain ones. Here are the sets so far:

• The IPA marks tense stops with a small mark under the letter (for example /k͈/, /t͈/, /p͈/). The same page notes that some writers use an apostrophe or an asterisk instead, which is not standard IPA usage.
• The tense letters are not simply "louder". The pages describe a difference in the throat and in the airflow, so what you want to hear is a tight, sharp start to the consonant without the puff that ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ have.
• The romanisation kk, tt, pp is a doubled letter. It does not tell you how the sound differs from k, t, p, so the sound is best learned from a recording, not from the romanisation.
• I have not found a reliable hand test that separates tense from plain. Listen to a native speaker for the contrast.

The Block Table

A tense letter goes in the block exactly where its plain letter would: first, with the vowel to the right (vertical vowels) or below (horizontal vowels). It takes the same room as one wide letter.

Compare one row: 가 (ga), 카 (ka), 까 (kka). Same vowel, three different starts. Do the same with 다 · 타 · 따 and 바 · 파 · 빠.

Look-Alike Warnings

• ㄲ and ㅋ. ㄲ is two ㄱ side by side; ㅋ is one ㄱ with a line across it.
• ㄸ and ㅌ. ㄸ is two separate door shapes; ㅌ is one door with a bar inside it.
• ㅃ, ㅂ and ㅍ. ㅃ is two ㅂ shapes side by side; ㅂ is a single square with two handles; ㅍ has a bar across the top with two legs.

Read It — First Words With Tense Letters

These use only letters you know. Say each word aloud and let the double letter be tight and sharp.

A Famous Trio

Learners are often shown one trio of words that differ only in the first consonant. Read them and notice that the vowel and the final ㄹ are the same:

Check: in each block the consonant comes first, the ㅏ goes to its right and the ㄹ sits underneath; the three blocks differ only in the first letter.

Try It Yourself — 연습

Say each answer out loud first, then click to check.