In this lesson we will cover Complex Consonants which are pairs of consonants that you already know which can occur ONLY as the final consonant or 받침 (panchim) in a Hangul block.

In many cases one of the two consonants ends up not being pronounced at all. Remember: these 11 special Complex Consonants can ONLY occur as the final consonant. The complex consonants covered here can NEVER occur as the first consonant in a Hangul block.

Before we go any further: Don't worry too much if about these!!! Some are not very common and you will get the hang of the common ones after a little practice.

The 11 complex consonants can be divided into 2 groups:

The 8 Initial-Consonant-Focused Complex Consonants are combinations of 2 consonants. The second consonant can be ignored unless the next syllable starts with a vowel. Here are the rules:

1) Pronounce the first consonant as a pat'chim (받침)
2) Is there a following syllable that starts with the place-holder consonant

Here are the 8 Initial-Consonant-Focused Complex Consonants along with examples. Note that, since only examples 3 & 4 are followed by the place-holder consonant, the second consonant will not be voiced in the other 6 examples: