Daily Dictation · Korean Spelling Survival

How a round works

Today's dictation is one round of ten sentences. Each hides one or two spots where Korean spelling is commonly wrong; typing the common misspelling there (for example 되요 instead of 돼요) springs the trap and costs one of your three lives. Ordinary typos elsewhere only lower your accuracy and do not cost lives.

After each sentence you see the correct spelling for any trap you hit, a short explanation and the number of the relevant article in the official Korean spelling rules. Clearing traps in a row builds a combo multiplier, and the final score is scaled to 100 points and graded in five steps from 만점왕 (perfect) to 재시험 (retake). Results can be saved as a card styled like a school test paper.

The flow of a round and how scoring works

• Today's set is one of three sentence sets, chosen by date, and its sentences run from easy to hard. Above each sentence you see its difficulty (easy, normal, hard) and how many traps it hides.
• The sentence is shown on screen in its correct spelling. A trap is a spot where habit makes your hands type the wrong form even though your eyes see the right one, so the key skill is typing exactly what is shown.
• After each sentence an explanation screen appears; press Enter or the space bar to go to the next sentence.
• Each sentence starts at 10 points multiplied by an accuracy factor: 100% accuracy is ×1.0, and every percentage point lower takes off 0.02, so 95% gives ×0.9 and 90% gives ×0.8.
• A sentence with no trap sprung gets a further ×1.5, and a combo multiplier based on how many sentences in a row you have cleared (×1.2, ×1.4 … up to ×3) is added. Springing a trap resets the combo.
• The sum for the ten sentences is measured against 150 points (15 per sentence × 10) and scaled to 100, with anything above capped at 100. If you never spring a trap, the combo usually carries you to 100.
• Lose all three lives and the round ends on the spot, scored only on the sentences you typed. The remaining sentences effectively count as zero, so the score drops sharply. Grades: 100 is 만점왕, 95 or more 우등생, 85 or more 보통, 70 or more 분발, and below that 재시험.

Trap types and how to clear them

• 되/돼: if 하여 fits in its place, write 돼; if 하 fits, write 되.
• 왠지/웬: only 왠지 (meaning "somehow, for some reason") uses 왠; everything else, such as 웬일 or 웬만하면, uses 웬.
• Words that go wrong when spelled by sound — 며칠, 금세, 역할, 어이없다, 바라다, 어쨌든, 으레 — are quickest to learn as whole words.
• Pairs that differ in meaning, such as 결재/결제, 가르치다/가리키다, 맞히다/맞추다 and -로서/-로써, need the whole sentence read before you choose.
• With one life left, slow down in the first half of each sentence: 31 of the 34 traps across the three dictation sets sit there.

The standards behind the explanations

The article numbers in the explanations come from the Korean Orthography (한글 맞춤법) and the Standard Language Rules (표준어 규정). The first unified standard for writing Korean was the 1933 Unified Hangul Orthography drawn up by the Korean Language Society; the current Korean Orthography and Standard Language Rules were announced in 1988 and took effect in 1989. Where the articles do not settle a word's spelling, the Standard Korean Language Dictionary of the National Institute of Korean Language is the reference.

The rule that appears most often in the sets is Article 51 of the Korean Orthography, on adverbs ending in -이 or -히. If the ending is clearly pronounced [이] only, write -이; if it sounds like [히], or wavers between [이] and [히], write -히. In practice, remember -이 after a final ㅅ (깨끗이, 따뜻이), after another adverb (일찍이, 더욱이) and after stems that do not take -하다 (같이, 많이), and usually -히 after stems that do take -하다 (열심히, 조용히); that covers most cases.

Common questions about the spelling traps

Are 담궈 and 잠궈 wrong too?

Yes. The base forms are 담그다 and 잠그다, so when -아 is added the ㅡ drops out, giving 담가 and 잠가, and the past tense is 담갔다 and 잠갔다. 담구다 and 잠구다 are not standard words, so 담궈 and 잠궈 have nothing to come from.

Why is 알맞는 wrong?

Because 알맞다 is an adjective. When an adjective modifies a noun it takes -은, not -는, giving 알맞은 and 걸맞은. Only the verb 맞다 takes -는, as in 맞는 답 ("the right answer").

Which is right, 바램 or 바람?

The noun meaning "hope" is 바람, from the verb 바라다. 바래다 means to fade, as in 색이 바래다 ("the colour fades"), so "I hope you pass" is written 합격을 바라, not 합격을 바래.