My Speaking Score · L1 Pronunciation Guide

Korean → English: the sounds that cost you points

A focused guide to the English sounds Korean doesn't have — with mouth diagrams, minimal pairs, and drills.

Why this matters for your TOEFL Speaking score

Korean and English use different sound systems, so a few English sounds simply don't exist in Korean — and your mouth defaults to the closest Korean sound. To a scoring engine, those defaults read as unclear words, and they quietly lower your Intelligibility construct. The good news: these are the cheapest points to recover. Fix five or six sounds and your speech gets noticeably clearer — fast.

/f/ and /v/ — fan, van, coffee, five

Korean has no /f/ or /v/. The mouth substitutes ㅍ (p) and ㅂ (b).

The Korean habit"fan" becomes "pan", "coffee" becomes "coppy", "five" becomes "bibe". /f/→p, /v/→b.
The fixRest your top teeth lightly on your bottom lip and push air through. That friction is /f/. Add your voice (buzz) for /v/. There is no lip-to-lip contact like p/b.
pan → fan ban → van coppy → coffee bery → very

Drill (30s): hold the /f/ friction for 2 seconds — fffff — then say fan, four, coffee, life. Then add voice: vvvv → van, very, five, love.

top teeth ↓ + lower lip ↑ = friction
Top teeth meet the lower lip; air escapes through the gap. Voiced = /v/, voiceless = /f/.

Construct: Intelligibility. Mixing f/p and v/b changes words (fan/pan, vote/boat) and forces the listener to guess.

/r/ vs /l/ — rice/lice, right/light, correct/collect

Korean has one liquid (ㄹ). English splits it into two very different sounds.

The Korean habitㄹ slides between an /r/ and /l/, so "right" and "light" blur together, and "really" comes out closer to a tapped "d".
The fix — /l/: tongue tip touches the ridge behind your top teeth.
/r/: tongue tip touches nothing — pull it back and bunch the tongue; round the lips slightly. No tap.
light ↔ right collect ↔ correct glass ↔ grass fly ↔ fry

Drill (30s): alternate slowly — la-ra-la-ra. Feel the tip tap the ridge on L, and float free on R.

/l/ — tip UP, touches /r/ — tip BACK, free touch no contact
L: tip presses the ridge. R: tip floats back, lips slightly rounded.

Construct: Intelligibility. This is the single highest-value contrast for Korean speakers — it changes many common words.

/θ/ and /ð/ — think, three, this, the

Korean has no "th". The mouth substitutes /s/, /t/ or /d/.

The Korean habit"think" → "sink" or "tink"; "this" → "dis"; "three" → "tree/free".
The fixPut your tongue tip lightly between your teeth (or just behind the top teeth) and let air pass. Voiceless = /θ/ (think). Add voice = /ð/ (this).
sink → think tree → three dis → this dey → they

Drill (30s): let the tongue tip peek out — th-th-th — then think, thanks, three, math; voiced → this, that, they, mother.

tongue tip → between the teeth
The tip comes forward to the teeth — not back like /s/ or /t/.

Construct: Intelligibility. "th" is rare across languages, so listeners notice the substitution immediately.

/z/ — zoo, zip, prize, easy

Korean has no /z/. The mouth uses /s/ or /dʒ/.

The Korean habit"zoo" → "Sue/jew"; "prize" → "price"; "easy" → "easy" with an /s/.
The fixMake a normal /s/ — then turn your voice on so it buzzes. /z/ is just a voiced /s/: same tongue, add the buzz. Put a hand on your throat; you should feel it vibrate.
Sue → zoo price → prize bus → buzz

Drill (20s): sssss → switch on the voice → zzzzz. Then zoo, zero, busy, is, was, these (lots of common words end in a /z/ sound).

voice ON /z/ = /s/ + vibration
Same mouth as /s/; the difference is voicing in the throat.

Construct: Intelligibility. Plural -s and verb endings are often /z/ (dogs, runs, is) — getting it wrong affects many words at once.

Final consonants — don't add a vowel

Korean syllables rarely end in a released consonant, so the mouth adds a small "eu" (ㅡ) sound.

The Korean habitAn extra vowel sneaks onto the end: words gain a syllable and sound non-native.
The fixStop cleanly on the final consonant. Release it, then stop your voice — do not add "eu". One syllable in, one syllable out.
deseukeu→desk
gudeu→good
buseu→bus
milkeu→milk

Drill (30s): say the word, then freeze your mouth on the last sound: desk · good · bus · bridge · helped. No vowel after.

des·keu 2 syllables ✗ desk 1 syllable ✓ Release the /k/ — then silence. No "eu" on the end.
Keep it one syllable: stop on the consonant, don't release into "eu".

Construct: Intelligibility + Fluency. Added vowels change the word shape and the syllable count, which makes timing sound off.

Consonant clusters — blend, don't break

Korean inserts vowels between consonants; English blends them.

The Korean habit"street" → "seu-teu-rit", "spring" → "seu-pu-ring". Each consonant gets its own vowel.
The fixGlide the consonants together with no vowel between them. Start slow: s-t-r, then speed up until they fuse into one onset.
seuteurit→street
seupuring→spring
tekseuteu→texts

Drill (30s): build it — r → tr → str → street. Then spring, scratch, strong, asked.

street one smooth onset: s-t-r ✓ seuteurit added vowels ✗
Fuse the consonants; delete the inserted vowels.

Construct: Intelligibility + Fluency. Extra syllables slow you down and obscure the word.

Tricky vowel pairs

Korean merges several English vowels — keep these distinct.

Keep these apart
sit /ɪ/ vs seat /iː/ cat /æ/ vs cut /ʌ/ bed /ɛ/ vs bad /æ/ full /ʊ/ vs fool /uː/
The Korean habit/ɪ/ and /iː/ collapse (sit = seat); /æ/ is replaced by a Korean "ae/e"; long and short vowels sound the same length.

Drill: exaggerate length and mouth shape — short and tense for sit, full, bed; longer and wider for seat, fool, bad.

Construct: Intelligibility. Vowel merges turn different words into the same word for the listener.

"s" before "ee" — don't turn it into "sh"

Korean ㅅ becomes a "sh" sound before /i/.

The Korean habit"see" → "she", "sea" → "shea", "Sunday" stays fine but "city" can soften toward "shi".
The fixFor /s/, keep the tongue tip forward near the ridge with a thin airstream. For "sh", the tongue pulls back and lips round. Before "ee", consciously keep it a crisp, forward /s/.
she → see sheat → seat she vs see (keep distinct)

Drill (20s): alternate see–she–see–she, feeling the tongue move forward for /s/ and back for /ʃ/.

Construct: Intelligibility. "see/she" and "seat/sheet" are common and easily confused.

Your 10-minute daily drill

  1. Warm up (1 min): fffff / vvvvv / zzzzz / th-th-th — hold each sound for 2 seconds.
  2. Minimal pairs (3 min): pick two pairs from above; say each 5×, recording yourself.
  3. Your worst sound (3 min): drill the one your score flags most — usually R/L or final consonants.
  4. Sentences (2 min): put the sound in real sentences from your practice set.
  5. Check (1 min): upload to My Speaking Score and watch your Intelligibility number move.