Column

Korean, explained

Longer pieces on how Korean actually works — written for English speakers, starting from what your own language already does without you noticing. Published when they're ready rather than on a schedule.

Pronunciation

The Korean Sounds English Doesn't HaveYou already make two of Korean's three p-sounds — English just uses the difference automatically instead of meaningfully. A plain-English guide to the three-way consonant contrast, the vowel ㅡ, and why ㄹ is not an r.
Batchim (받침) — Why 옷, 낫 and 낮 All Sound the SameEnglish has final consonants, so batchim isn't a new idea for you. What's new is that Korean allows only seven of them, never releases three of them, and keeps spelling distinctions the sound has already thrown away.
Liaison (연음화) — You Already Do This in EnglishYou say 'an apple' as a-napple without thinking about it. Korean does the same thing, does it inside words as well as between them, and never changes the spelling to show it.

Vocabulary

Sino-Korean (한자어) — Learn One Word, Get Three MoreAbout half of Korean vocabulary is assembled from a small set of one-syllable parts that each carry a fixed meaning — the same way English builds words out of Latin and Greek roots. You don't need to learn a single Chinese character to start using this.