Why Does ㄴ Sound Like ㄷ? | Korean FAQ

Have you ever confused words with the ㄴ sound with being the ㄷ sound? For example, have you ever heard a native Korean speaker say 네 but it sounded to you like 데? Or, have you heard someone say ㅁ but it sounded like ㅂ or vice versa? For example, has someone said 문 but it sounded like 분? The reason for this has to do with not only the tongue position used when making these sounds, but also with nasal sounds.
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[@pauldenhelder]

When I started to learn I also thought ㄷ sounded like ㅌ and ㅂ sounded like ㅍ. It's true that you'll get used to it after a while so don't worry beginners, you'll get there :) x

[@littletath]

this gives me some hope haha

[@Hannah-sj3rq]

Billy..you have to be the best Korean teacher there is. This explains so much. Thank you!!

[@manobit]

I think this similarity shows why King Sejong made ㄷ from ㄴ just adding a line, and same as ㅂ from ㅁ.

[@fatimah971]

shitskdhs why havent i realied that before lmao

[@ADeeSHUPA]

@@fatimah971 ㅈㅈ파치마

[@fatimah971]

@@ADeeSHUPA ???

[@youdontknowannyeonghaseyo4104]

@@fatimah971 She/He wanted to write your name lol

[@fatimah971]

@@youdontknowannyeonghaseyo4104 i know lol but why?

[@mhogan24]

Wow this is a topic that REALLY had me scratching my head before and this is SO helpful. The side by side demonstrations of “lazy 네” and 데 were super useful to hear the difference! I agree with another comment thread that some more specific linguistic terms would be helpful for some learners. But clear/repeated demonstrations definitely help everyone!

[@lesbonbons9526]

This video is not only helpful for learning korean but also good for koreans who are learning english like me! his explanation about the diffrence of korean and english sound is really helpful to learn english sounds! Maybe that's why i watch this video though i don't have to learn korean😂And his english pronunciation sounds really clear so i can practice english hearing as well and also his korean pronunciation is totally perfect thanks to Billy for this great video

[@ADeeSHUPA]

Are You A 韓國분

[@lesbonbons9526]

@@ADeeSHUPA yes i am

[@ADeeSHUPA]

@@lesbonbons9526 金世恩

[@lesbonbons9526]

@@ADeeSHUPA that's exactly my name in chinese character! Do you speak chinese?

[@ADeeSHUPA]

@@lesbonbons9526 is that true ? I Just Guess with some basics 한자 漢字

[@lis9937]

As a native Korean, I am surprised at your findings. Great!

[@TheHekateris]

Yeah, the nasal thing is hard to overcome. Although, funnily enough, I still sometimes mishear the examples you provi and I've 'studying' for 2 years now. Ah well, I'll get there eventually.

[@cmLauren08]

This video is so informative. Thanks a lot!!! And the effortlessly entertaining adlibs you have in the entire video is such a plus ㅋㅋㅋ

[@jupamoers]

I needed that. Thanks a lot, Billy^^

[@tokkicabo4578]

Im always confused about this, thank you for explaining it to us! ^^

[@Sup3rdud4]

I have been learning Korean phonology, and many Korean speakers do a thing called denasalization for m and n sounds at the beginning of words. Essentially, nasal consonants are created by closing a part of the back of the mouth cavity letting air go through the nose. When denasalization occurs, this part is not entirely occluded, leading to a sound where the nasal quality has been weakened. It sounds a lot like when you have a cold and try to speak; as with a cold, you naturally get some inflammation in the back of your throat. This causes a slight occlusion of the cavity. A great example of Billy denasalizing is at 6:17 what he calls 'lazily' is actually quite common if not the norm if you take the research from Seoul University's phonology department to be conclusive of course.

[@cherylschaeffer7832]

Learning Korean pronunciation through science... the science of speech pathology. Love it!

[@GeorgiaMyname]

You are sooo good to explain things !,,Thank you teacher Billy 🎉🎉🎉💕

[@ProtonChicken]

I’m trying to learn Korean right now and this cleared so much up, 감사합니다!

[@victoriaullrich]

I was just wondering this week about this!

[@FrankM]

0:57 It would have been hilarious if this video was that short. You should definitely do super-short, bite-sized videos too. 6:51 I've also heard "뭐" pronounced as "붜", but I also ever so slightly heard the 미음 being pronounced.

[@Neky_Hina]

This is also the reason why Koreans have hard time pronouncing voiced consonants in English such as B, D, G, Z, and even N and M when they appear at the beginning of a word. Korean doesn't use "voice" as a crucial factor for communication unlike many other languages but uses "air" instead. This tells a useful tip for Korean consonants: Only use your air instead of voice during practicing consonants. If you're used to making differences between ㄱ (not like G but K), ㅋ, ㄲ, for example, WITHOUT your voice, then you're perfect. Add your voice and then it's OK. :)

[@shanehanna]

It's not just ㄷ,ㄴ, ㅂ & ㅁ but listening to native speakers in general I'm struggling with. To me individual syllables and words just tend to blur together more than they do in Japanese and Mandarin for example.

[@BBarNavi]

Why does nobody talk about aspiration and voicing?!

[@fumeinayuza]

Cuz unfortunately most language learners don't care about it

[@GoBillyKorean]

This, really. I could explain it, but it's not as useful to people who haven't learned about those concepts already. People who study linguistics can learn about this much faster if they know those concepts, but the average Korean learner would benefit more from a simple explanation. Plus, I'm not a linguistics expert, so it'd be difficult for me to make a detailed explanation like that.

[@cjt8469]

Kind of like how Koreans who are low level in English hear 'laywer' and 'loyal' as the same thing.

[@erika-yx6li]

Thank you ^^

[@flaviospadavecchia5126]

You completely forgot to talk about voicing... The main way to differenciate between "lazy" ㄴ and ㄷ is that the first is fully voiced (like our D), while the latter isn't (it's closer to our T, with less aspiration).

[@dontxtalk]

I had to google this bc I kept hearing "네" and it sounds like "ne" (is what I heard originally) or sometimes "de" depending on the speaker. I think some pronounce it more to like one or the other, so I couldn't figure out how to pronounce it. I found it interesting you said English "ne" is more nasal , because to me "네" sounds like saying "ne" with a stuffy nose, aka more nasal. I don't know, the best way I can pronounce it is actually a quick switch like saying "nde" haha, like you're anticipating "ne", and say "de" instead, if that makes sense.

[@KurtVanBever]

Thank God I found this video! I thought there was something wrong with me.

[@nillyk5671]

I'm starting to like you a lot more 😊

[@a_ashy]

Thanks ❤❤❤❤

[@someone3435]

6:17 I don't care what y'all saying all I am hearing is DE 😂😂😂. I guess I gotta practice more. Kdramas are waiting for me

[@shael982007]

I think same happened to me I learned Hindi as a native and English as a secondary language in my school. So for D we also have two sounds. For B also we have two sounds. So I was always confused. I was not able to understand any Hollywood movie when I was 15 year's old even though I knew English. But now I can even understand the rap's from Eminem. I think after learning If you are not exposed to the native speaker's everything will be of a waste.

[@baghyasrib6929]

So true....in india we use letters like T, D,R etc from the Indian languages which are actually very different from real English pronunciation. That's why the Indian accent sounds so different. It took so many years to understand this.

[@raed8905]

Here from Memrise AND duo with the 'de?'"dorae"? and I swear they just said screw it we're doing a hard D sound. This is so helpful for knowing what to actually do

[@yongkykuncoro]

Hmm still confused….

[@sharika2006]

@Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean Thx for the lession. I watched it like 10 times over a week now. I mean I understand how to position the tongue, but I still speak a "ne" so is that something that comes with time or do I still do it wrong then? I also watched the TTMIK video, as well as the videos for ㄹ where I have a similar problem where I pronounce ramen with a mixture of r/l but Russia with an l cause I can not make an r there reliably. Any help is appreciated, there is lots of videos with how to speak but not many with a lot of exercise in that regard sadly - if anyone knows of anything (also non video sources) please tell me. Thank you.

[@mothicbeauty]

When you close your eyes >>>>

[@qwerty22198]

So it’s a bit like how English speakers can tell the difference between middle and little, specifically the D and T sounds respectively.

[@Sam-cv5gd]

I found it easy to pronounce most language. (I think it's bc due to my Arabic background - We have many letters that has every sound)

[@zarapark3465]

This video is great . But I was wondering : why are you putting your cap on ? I'm asking because this is a FAQ video .

[@GoBillyKorean]

Simple answer is I forgot. Long answer is I forgot. I filmed several episodes with my hat on, and just figured it doesn't matter that much :-P

[@MaruskaStarshaya]

it doesn't sound same to Korean because korean word couldn't start from a "D" sound - so 데 would sound "Te" and "De" is automatically accepted as "Ne".

[@ope1222]

Korean is pronounced not only use the tongue, we use the lungs and throat as well

[@TheDkdl1176]

저거 혀..맞죠?

[@user-jw8iw6wo7p]

그러니까 공부를 덜 해서 비슷한게 들린다는 결론 같은데요?

[@lilultime6555]

🐍

[@annietaehyung6046]

Don't know why but you seems like Charlie puth 😂😂😂

[@irmar]

Yes, at the beginning of a word N is pronounced like D, but the real D is pronounced like T. And M is pronounced B, but the real B is pronounced like P, so "of course" they wouldn't confuse them, since even the "real" sound gets changed to another. And the real T and P? They have to pronounced with big emphasis, to be distinguished! Not to mention the G at the beginning or at the end which is pronounced like a soft K and the J at the beginning of the word which is pronounced like a softer CH. Or the fact that they didn't care to invent a separate letter for L and R since they do have the two sounds and can pronounce both of them correctly when they are in certain positions. I just hate it when languages evolve to be pronounced differently than what they are written (and that goes for English, French, Greek and so many other languages). One would expect Korean to be different, since their script was invented in the 17th century, so it had less time to "evolve" (or should we say "devolve") than any of those. But no sir! You're first told that "Korean is pronounced as it's written", and you smile your way home, but then the bitter truth is served up to you.

[@GoBillyKorean]

The problem is equating Korean sounds with English, since there aren't any English sounds that match exactly with Korean. It's something that comes with using romanization, which I recommend avoiding. I have a free course that also avoids romanization here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qamTqqyHptCjp9E

[@dull.4320]

It's frustrating because I want to learn the correct pronunciation when I know it's not going to happen. It feels like I have to just try my best to ignore it and learn incorrectly, then re-learn pronunciation later down the road. It's keeping me from enjoying learning the language.