Should I use "ㅓ " or "ㅗ"?
Whenever I try to spell something and it comes the "o" sound I get confused because I've noticed that both of these characters ,ㅓ and ㅗ, have a similar sound. For example, if I want to spell my name (Roxane), would it be 록산 or 럭산? I know the " ㅓ" is supposed to be "e" , but honestly whenever I hear a native speaker saying it , it sounds like "o" to me :( Hope someone understand what I'm trying to say! Thank you!

Question

Should I use "ㅓ " or "ㅗ"?
Whenever I try to spell something and it comes the "o" sound I get confused because I've noticed that both of these characters ,ㅓ and ㅗ, have a similar sound. For example, if I want to spell my name (Roxane), would it be 록산 or 럭산? I know the " ㅓ" is supposed to be "e" , but honestly whenever  I hear a native speaker saying it , it sounds like "o" to me :( Hope someone understand what I'm trying to say! Thank you!

Answer

Well, there is no "Right" way to spell foreign language words in Korean, but in your name case, it should be written "록산" because sound of "ㅗ" is similar sound of "o" in English. Also, "ㅓ" pronounce like "u" in English. Thus, if your name is "Ruxane", you will write as "럭산". But your name is "Roxane", so you need to write as "록산"

Answer

I was confused by these two sounds too, but they are in fact different. Like Jeongmin mentioned, 어 sounds more like "uh" and 오 sounds more like "oh". May try listening to the pronunciations of vowels at this website (scroll to the bottom): http://www.omniglot.com/writing/korean.htm

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