Lesson 4: ㄹ (Rieul/Lieul)

 Welcome back !

Let’s go straight into our fourth consonant ㄹ (리을).

Alert Alert ~! We have a really tricky one here. This one is written as “Rieul” or “Lieul”

Let’s try to pronounce it.

How did you pronounce it? What did you hear? L  or R? 

This one is so tricky because depending on the word, it might be closer to L or R!!

But basically, most of the words are closer to R than it is to L.

On words with ㄹ, you will most likely to hear R sound first and then touch of L...

Very strange right? How do you hear two different sounds in such short amount of time?😱

Okay…let’s take one step at a time. For the consonant ㄹ(리을), try to pronounce it with Rieul. However, try not to roll the R too much.  If you can roll your tongue less on the R, you will most likely to get the sound that you want. This require lots of practice as your tongue would not be so use to this pronunciation. If you listen to the audio above, you can hear that I didn’t pronounce it with "Re" but more with the "Li" with touch of R sound.  Simply, it is not “Re-Eul” but more like “Li-Eul.”  

Let’s try with the activity.

ㄹ(Rieul/Lieul) (New page will open)

Let’s see how “ㄹ” sounds in Korean words. For those who speak French or heard French before, pronounce the word “le.” If you are not familiar with French, think of the word “learn.” You write it with L but it does have that bit of "R" sound.  Well that is basically how ㄹ is !

We have second audio clip today because this one is so tricky. This is a Korean word called “나라(nara)” which means country. Listen to the clip below

Yes it is not naRa or naLA but somewhere in between right? Have this in mind and let’s try with our activity with ㄹ(R/L).

ㄹ(R/L)

Wow…the lesson was not so easy right? It is tricky for sure! Practice over and over again and as always if you have any questions, always reach out 

We will start with our fifth consonant ㅁ (Mieum). It is so much easier than ㄹ so hang in there and I will see you later! 👋