ㄹ — rieul
Korean consonant · /ɾ/ before a vowel, [l] in final position
ㄹ is /ɾ/ before a vowel, [l] in final position — the tapped r of Spanish pero when a vowel follows; an l at the end of a syllable. It appears in 20 cells of the syllable chart, 10 of which have audio you can play here.
40 of the 568 words in the dictionary behind this site contain ㄹ — 27% of the bar the most common letter would fill.
| Name | rieul (리을) |
|---|---|
| Sound | /ɾ/ before a vowel, [l] in final position |
| Romanized | r at the start, l at the end |
| Hear it | Recorded by a native Korean speaker |
ㄹ in the syllable chart
10 of 20 cells have audio — 9 with their own recording, 1 borrowing one from an identically pronounced syllable. 10 have none yet.
Where the reading differs from the spelling
- 뢰 is read [뢰/뤠] and romanized roe.
- 릐 is read [리] and romanized rui.
See the articles that decide this.
Words that use ㄹ
나라
country
라디오
radio
도로
road
로마
Rome
- 몰라요don't know
- 빨라요fast
- 오로라aurora
- 그러면then
Questions people ask
- How do you pronounce ㄹ? +
- ㄹ is /ɾ/ before a vowel, [l] in final position. In English terms it is the tapped r of Spanish pero when a vowel follows; an l at the end of a syllable. At the start of a syllable it is romanized r, and at the end of a syllable it is l.
- What is the name of the letter ㄹ? +
- It is called rieul (리을). Korean consonant names are built so that the letter appears twice — once at the start of the name and once at the end — which tells you both of its positions at a glance.
- How many strokes does ㄹ have? +
- 5. They are written top to bottom and left to right, the same order used for every Korean letter.
- Why is 뢰 not read the way it is written? +
- 뢰 is pronounced [뢰/뤠]. 2 of the cells in this set read differently from how they are written. The rules page quotes the article that decides it.
- Why do some ㄹ cells play a different syllable? +
- 1 of them do. The standard defines those syllables as having the same pronunciation as another one, so rather than play nothing the cell plays that syllable's recording. Each cell names which one it borrows.