Pitch, rhythm and spelling

Ordinary modern Hangeul has no tone marks. Pitch and phrase melody matter for consonant contrasts, questions and emphasis. Some regional Korean varieties have lexical pitch contrasts; this course uses contemporary standard South Korean pronunciation.

Standard Korean does not have an English-style lexical stress system with one independently marked stressed syllable in every word. Prominence and pitch depend on the phrase and speech context. Copy the rhythm of whole-word and sentence recordings instead of inventing a universal first- or last-syllable stress rule.

Hangeul represents speech sounds, but modern spelling also preserves meaningful word parts. A final consonant can link to a following vowel, and neighbouring sounds can change in connected speech. Different final letters can share one ending sound. The spelling stays the same while the pronunciation changes.

Listen to home, at home, and Korean speech. A final consonant can link into the next block when a vowel follows. You do not need those sound-change rules before your first letters.