How to Pronounce ㅅ and ㅆ | Korean FAQ 

ㅅ and ㅆ has been the most difficult to distinguish between for me and this was really helpful! Thank you!!

Billy's son: 엄마, can dad come play Billy's wife: Dad's working honey Billy in the background: ㅆㅆㅆㅆㅆㅆㅆ쌀!!

Thanks for the tips. Producing these two sounds correctly and consistently is definitely my biggest pronunciation problem left to solve. It's hard for me to practice because the more I focus on it, the harder it gets to distinguish them!

Omg my jaw dropped at 4:40 I made up the same system for pronuncing 가가 vs 가까 and 사사 vs 사싸, 바바 vs 바빠 when I used to teach my friends Korean. I also realsied and i’m pretty sure about this, that back in the day ㄱ was described as k/g and ㅂ was b/p etc…HOWEVER they’re not a mix of the two BUT the pronunciation is either one or the other depending on if the letter is used in the first character of a word or in the second: Example: 가게 so the first ㄱ sound in 가 is more like a K and the ㄱ in 게 is more like a G sound. 바보 the first ㅂ sounds like a P and second ㅂ sounds like a B.

The tissue tip is actually genius! It really helps to test the sounds Once I asked about the difference between 시 and 씨, and someone said the first sounds like "si", and the other like "ssi" 😑 I guess it's a difficult thing to explain lol, but this video really helped me out 😀

The explanation of where in the mouth you're pronouncing them was super helpful! Being able to picture that made a huge difference to my pronunciation immediately.

This was a really useful video. I loved how many tips and tricks you shared today. Thank you so much. I look for something similar for ㅈ, ㅉ

It was not my experience, but one person, who is, I think, a translator in Korea, told in one of his lectures that he did have 살 vs 쌀 situation in there. He said they were talking about wedding traditions, someone wanted to mention throwing rice, but it ended with everyone super confused why people throw meat at the newly weds xD

The part when you yell the pronunciation of the double consonant, it made me laugh hard HAHHAHAHAAHAHA. This made the learning process so much fun! Thank you for the tip about these pronunciations. I kind of like some more of these kinds of pronunciation tips, especially the double consonants.

I CANNOT BELIEVE I FINALLY UNDERSTAND IT 😭 Thank you so much!

I needed this explanation and also I requested for it in his live stream yesterday. Thanks Billy😭❤

I still struggle with differentiating all the time. I hope you make more about the other double consonants as well. Love from Jamaica.

In the past when I started studying Korean I struggled with this and watched several explanations on it but this one is the best one I've seen so far, very well done!! ^^

THE BEST KOREAN TEACHER

Thank you! This was lingering in my mind for a bit

This is by far the most useful lesson about double consonants, especially ㅅ & ㅆ. I didn't have a problem with double consonants, but I did have a hard time with ㅅ & ㅆ. Everyone else explained it as "double s" which is very confusing. But your explanation made me understand and be able to pronounce it perfectly! Thank you very much Billy!!!

This video was *great,* really. I’ve been looking around for a long time (years) for something explaining the difference between ㅅ and ㅆ and most “explanations” don’t mention the aspiration (that puff of air) with ㅅ as opposed to ㅆ. _But,_ for me, the hardest sounds to say and discriminate in hearing are 시 and 씨. Can you do a follow-up video on those?

Gosh Billy your amazing! All of your videos are so helpful and I really appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge. Thank you

Thanks! I enjoyed this video and look forward to more of these videos.

wow i think this is the first time i finally understood the difference! thank you so much!

This reminds me of the way to pronounce 'b' and 'p' when I was learning English! Interesting!

Just screaming at a tissue lmao (But also very helpful, thank you)

It's really helpful!!! 갑사합니다

Thank you for making this video!!

새해 복 많이 받으시고 건강하세용 🎁🧧🎊

Great tips!

It's a great explanation! I still have it difficult to tell 시 and 씨 apart. T_T

Awesome explanation!! 😃 Thank you!

한국은 설날이네요 빌리 새해 복 많이 받아요~

Amazing video, of great help, thank u

That was very helpful. I can practice speaking them correctly now. Hearing the difference is another matter though 😣

Koreans have always told me I can't pronounce this (or distinguish it when others say it). After watching this, I think I might be able to... I will find someone and ask them soon!

I was having a really hard time with this after trying to practice and i finally got it! But it freaked out my cat and she kept come over to me and meowing and sniffing me 😂😂😂 i guess it freaked her out to keep hearing me say 스 and 쓰 back to back

Lol but flesh is very different from uncooked rice 🤣 Great explanations, as usual!

Very helpful!

Summary of points from the video (plus ones I've seen from other sources too): Aspiration: ㅅ is aspirated (breathy like s + ha almost) ㅆ is not aspirated (little air) Tensing: ㅅ is softer/relaxed with bigger gap between upper and lower teeth + tip of your tongue ㅆ is tensed with tongue building pressure behind your teeth Duration: ㅅ sound is quicker ㅆ sound can be sustained longer Pitch: ㅅ-starting syllables are lower in pitch ㅆ-starting syllables are very noticably higher in pitch & emphasised Commoness ㅅ is the 'base' sound and so is used much more often ㅆ is more rare. If you had to guess which one, the chances are it is ㅅ and not ㅆ. Loan words: As ㅆ is closer to English 's' and ㅅ is quite unique, when you hear borrowed words from English, they tend to pronounce them with ㅆ and not how it is written (often ㅅ). 받침 ending sound rules: All Batchim rules apply for ㅆ just as they apply to all other double consonants. For example, expensive is 비싸 (bissa) and instead of being prounced as [bi + ssa] seperately, its pronounced [bis-ssa] which the ㅆ sound bleeding into the end of the consonant of the previous syllable. Note: In real life speech, natives don't always follow all these pronounciation differences exactly, nor 100% of the time. They may speak fast or more fluidly and it can sound different to what you expect. There are also different dialects and variations amongst generations. However, as you learn and get used to more conversational Korean, you can usually easily tell by context. Plus, you can always ask the speaker to repeat, or repeat what you are saying to communicate clearly. This is just from what I have seen and put together, feel free to share your thoughts.

Billy ur great

Something about billy saying “사랑해” to a paper made me laugh

This was really helpful, though my pronunciation isn't the same as yours. Will have to practice that. Sometimes it soundds like ㅆ in the middle of a word is pronunced like a 't' (might be another letter) or is completely silent. Those are my biggest troubles.

Hi Billy, could you do a similar video for ㄱ, ㄲ & ㅋ? Mainly, I feel like I'm going crazy trying to pronounce ㄱ. I've watched just about every video I can find on youtube and nothing has clicked for me. It's between a G and a K , voiced vs unvoiced, where the sound comes from your mouth, etc. I feel like I'm just making a g or a k sound. It's driving me crazy! Along those same lines, I think I can distinguish between ㄱ,ㄲ & ㅋ but when I try basic dictation test I'm wrong just about every time. Or if you have any advice that would be much appreciated! Thank you!

THANK YOU OMG

감사합니다 선생님

I was wondering if your beginner books have sections on pronunciation? I have seen a lot of things about it and they all seem to be following rules I dont know that make it hard on how things are supposed to be said. like ㄱsounding different depending on placement in word or if its followed by a vowel and such and makes it really confusing on how things are to be said lol

could the ㅆ sound be similar to something like "tsa" because of the way your mouth tenses up from the "t"?

I badly wanna learn

I want to ask when ㅅ is placed between two vowels does the air coming out from our mouth reduced while we're pronouncing this? Like 아사 and 해서. Or it's still the same on how it pronounced in the beginning like ㅅ in 살?

As native Tagalog speaker, it was easy to pronounce and recognize aspirated and unaspirated stops, but with this weird S, I don't know.

I find all these weird consonants and double consonants to be the most difficult part of learning Korean

감사합니다!!!!

Can you make a video about ㄱㄲㅋ And ㄷㄸㅌ And ㅂㅃㅍ Please 🙏🏻. I can understand from you more than any other teacher so far. Thank you for this one as well ☺️

Who woulda thought the tissue paper woulda done the trick

Hello billy! Just a quick question.. is the past continuous tense different from the present continuous tense? Like when we want to talk about the structure of the sentence. Also how can I differentiate between the casual speech and the informal speech? Did you make some lessons about them? I can't find any on RU-vid cause everyone is saying there's only 2 levels of speech 😊

It sounds as if the single ㅅ has a ㅎ following it, and the ㅆ not, and same with ㅈ vs ㅉ etc.?

Is duo good to learn ?

When we say 씨 it is pronounced as 'shi' right? For example, 지민씨. So in what all cases is ㅆ pronounced as 'sh'?

🤔 서 so. 써 saw This is sort of what I'm hearing. Not exact but close.

they still sounds the same to me 😭

Can you please do one on ㅈ and ㅊ?

I tried the thing with the paper towel but it moves in both cases, despite me pronouncing them differently. And no matter how I try to pronounce the 싸, it always moves lol

고맙다

i was just asking myself this?! whaat

oh crap i think i've been pronouncing these two backwards lmao

Every grandma and grandpa in 경상 is confused by this video.

Suh dude

how about "햇" 했"

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