받침은 항상 닫힌소리예요
You've made it through consonants, vowels, and double consonants — the last piece is 받침 (batchim), the consonant that sometimes sits at the bottom of a syllable. Whatever letter is written there, the syllable "closes" instead of releasing — and written batchim only ever produce 7 of these closed sounds.
7가지 받침 소리
Whatever letter is written as the batchim, it collapses into one of these 7 sounds when spoken.
닫히기만 하고, 소리는 그대로인 받침
4These four still "close" the syllable — the airflow stops there — but the sound itself doesn't change into something else.
막힌 소리로 바뀌는 받침
10The other consonants merge into just 3 "stopped" sounds — no puff of air released at the end.
The takeaway — a batchim is always a closed sound: the airflow stops right there at the end of the syllable. 19 consonants, but only 7 possible closed sounds. ㄴㄹㅁㅇ close while keeping their own identity; everything else collapses into an unreleased t, k, or p.
겹받침 — 두 개의 받침
한 걸음 더Sometimes two different consonants share the batchim spot. Usually only one of them is actually pronounced.
중세 한국어에서는 겹받침 두 개가 실제로 다 발음됐지만, 현대 한국어에서는 그중 하나만 소리 나요. In Middle Korean, both consonants in a double batchim were actually pronounced — in modern Korean, only one of them survives.
앞 자음을 발음 · front consonant is pronounced
뒤 자음을 발음 · back consonant · only ㄺ ㄻ ㄿ
🔗 단, 뒤에 모음이 오면 얘기가 달라져요 — 앉아요[안자요], 긁어요[글거요]처럼, 묵음이었던 뒤쪽 자음이 다음 글자로 넘어가서 다시 살아나요. 자세한 건 발음 규칙 페이지에서 확인해보세요! But when a vowel follows, that silent second consonant comes back to life and slides into the next syllable — 앉아요 [an-ja-yo], 긁어요 [geul-geo-yo]. See the Pronunciation page for the full story.