Korean Linking Sounds (연음): 20 Words to Say Out Loud

When a Korean syllable ends in a consonant and the next one starts with ㅇ, that consonant slides over and takes the empty seat. 한국어 is written han-guk-eo but lands on your ear as [한구거] . Nothing is being dropped or slurred — the word is just re-cut. Here are 20 words to re-hear, and say.

What is actually happening in your mouth?

Korean writing packs consonants into neat syllable blocks and Korean speech ignores them. The ㅇ at the start of a syllable is an empty seat: it holds the space where a consonant would go, but makes no sound itself. When the syllable in front of it ends in a consonant — a 받침 (batchim) — that consonant moves into the seat. The spelling stays where it is. The sound shifts one place to the left.

This matters more for your ears than for your mouth. You already know 한국어. You have studied 음악. But when they arrive as [한구거] and [으막], your ear goes hunting for words it has never seen, and the rest of the sentence is gone by the time you give up. Linking is not really a rule you apply when you speak. It is the reason the vocabulary you already own fails to show up when you listen. If you have read why Korean sounds so fast, this is the first of those four changes, taken slowly.

Four words, three ways each. The middle column is the one your ear has to learn.

Round 1 — twenty words

Say each one twice: once slowly as it is spelled, once at speed as it is said. The gap between those two is the whole drill.

Ten words with one batchim

Only one consonant moves, and it moves whole. It does not stay behind as well.

• 한국어 [한구거] hangugeo — Korean, the language
• 음악 [으막] eumak — music
• 발음 [바름] bareum — pronunciation
• 직업 [지겁] jigeop — job
• 연음 [여늠] yeoneum — linking, the rule itself
• 단어 [다너] daneo — word
• 웃어요 [우서요] useoyo — smiles, laughs
• 옷이 [오시] osi — the clothes
• 꽃이 [꼬치] kkochi — the flower
• 시간이 [시가니] sigani — the time

Ten words with two batchim

A few syllables end in two consonants — 앉, 값, 닭, 젊. Only the second one travels. The first stays exactly where it is, which is why 앉아요 is [안자요] and never [아자요].

• 앉아요 [안자요] anjayo — sit down
• 읽어요 [일거요] ilgeoyo — read
• 없어요 [업써요] eopseoyo — there isn't any
• 값이 [갑씨] gapsi — the price
• 닭이 [달기] dalgi — the chicken
• 젊어요 [절머요] jeolmeoyo — is young
• 넓어요 [널버요] neolbeoyo — it's wide
• 삶이 [살미] salmi — life
• 많아요 [마나요] manayo — there are a lot
• 싫어요 [시러요] sireoyo — I don't like it

The last two are the exception the rule needs. In 많 and 싫 the second consonant is ㅎ, and ㅎ never travels — it vanishes, and the first consonant links instead. That is why 많아요 is [마나요] and not [만하요]. More on ㅎ below.

Example audio is AI-generated.

Round 2 — does linking cross between separate words?

Yes. If the next word begins with a vowel, the batchim crosses the gap as though the space were not there. This is why a sentence you can read in two seconds takes three listens.

• 시간 있어요? [시가니써요] Sigan isseoyo? — Do you have a minute?
• 이름이 뭐예요? [이르미 뭐예요] Ireumi mwoyeyo? — What's your name?
• 밥을 먹어요 [바블 머거요] babeul meogeoyo — have a meal
• 음악을 들어요 [으마글 드러요] eumageul deureoyo — listen to music
• 발음이 어려워요 [바르미 어려워요] bareumi eoryeowoyo — the pronunciation is hard
• 잘 어울려요 [자러울려요] jal eoullyeoyo — it suits you

This is also the moment linking stops being theory. The first time you order food in Korean, every line you have rehearsed comes back at you with the seams already dissolved.

Round 3 — one sentence, three breath groups

A compliment you will hear constantly, broken into the chunks a Korean speaker actually breathes in. Say each chunk, then run them together.

• 옷이 [오시] osi
• 정말 [정말] jeongmal
• 잘 어울려요 [자러울려요] jal eoullyeoyo

Whole: 옷이 정말 잘 어울려요. [오시 정말 자러울려요] Osi jeongmal jal eoullyeoyo. — "That really suits you."

Say it once at reading speed and once at talking speed. If the two sound the same, the second one is too slow.

When does linking not happen?

Four cases, and every one of them catches learners who have just learned the rule and started applying it everywhere.

When the ㅇ is a real sound, not an empty seat. A ㅇ in the batchim position is a genuine ng — there is nothing empty about it and nothing moves. 강아지 stays [강아지] gangaji , not [가강지]. 종이 stays [종이] jongi.

When the batchim is ㅎ. ㅎ does not move into the seat; it disappears out of the word entirely. 좋아요 is [조아요] joayo . In 싫어요 the ㅎ vanishes and the ㄹ links, giving [시러요]. Same for 많아요 → [마나요].

When the next word is a real word, not an ending. Particles and verb endings take the batchim exactly as it is. But when a full word follows, the batchim first collapses to its plain sound and then moves. This is why 맛없다 is [마덥따] madeoptta and not [마섭따], why 옷 안 is [오단], and why 꽃 위 is [꼬뒤].

And then there is 맛있어요. By the rule just above it should be [마디써요] — and that pronunciation is the prescribed one — but what you will hear from almost everyone is [마시써요] . Both are accepted; it is the one word where the everyday form won.

What do English speakers get wrong?

Stopping between syllables. Reading 한국어 as three separate blocks with a tiny pause after each is the loudest foreign-accent marker in Korean, and it also trains your ear to expect a word nobody says.

Copying the consonant instead of moving it. 음악 becomes [으막], not [음막]. The ㅁ leaves. Learners who keep it in both places end up with a heavy extra beat in the middle of the word.

Over-linking across word boundaries. Once the rule clicks it is tempting to apply it to everything, which produces [마서따] for 맛없다. Endings take the batchim raw; real words do not.

How do you know you got it right?

You mostly don't, and that is the honest problem. Linking errors are small — an extra beat, a consonant said twice, a stop where there should be a slide — and they are exactly the class of mistake your own ears filter out when you are the one talking. Reading the brackets on this page will not tell you whether your 앉아요 came out as [안자요] or [안짜요].

The fix is boring and it works: record the twenty words, play them back against a native version, and listen for the seam between syllables. If you can hear a seam, it is there.

FAQ

Do I have to memorise 연음 as a rule?

No. Drill the words instead. The rule takes thirty seconds to understand and months to hear, and the hearing is the part that matters.

Why do romanizations disagree — hangugeo or hanguk-eo?

Because some systems romanize the spelling and some romanize the sound. Revised Romanization follows the sound, which is why you will usually see hangugeo. Neither is wrong; they answer different questions.

Does this still happen when Koreans speak slowly?

Mostly yes. Linking is not a fast-speech shortcut like a dropped syllable — it happens in careful speech and on the news too. What speed changes is how much time you get to catch it.