Foreign words when used in Korean undergoes transcription, to make them pronounceable and memorable. Transcription into Korean, for the most part, is very similar to or even influenced by transcription into Japanese, although the number of homophones resulted by imperfect mapping of foreign sounds onto native sounds is significantly smaller, as Korean has a larger phoneme inventory and a more inclusive phonotactics.

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The typical syllable structure of Korean is CGVC, with C being "consonant", G "glide", and V "vowel". Consonants and glides are optional. A few English words may get irregular transcription treatment, likely due to the influence of Japanese. Eg: shirt → 샤츠 sya-cheu (Japanese シャツ sha-tsu); mother → 마더 ma-deo (Japanese マザー ma-za-a); dragon → 드래곤 deu-rae-gon (Japanese ドラゴン do-ra-gon); level → 레벨 re-bel (Japanese レベル re-be-ru).

For the most part, transcription into Korean is phonemic, i.e., based on the phonologies of both the source and the target languages (Korean itself). However, [l], an allophone of /r/ in Korean, is utilized syllable-finally and intervocalically to transcribe the foreign sound /l/. This makes the foreign sound /l/ more transcribable into Korean than it is into Japanese, which has no strategic differences between [l] and /r/. E.g.: ball → 볼 bol (Japanese ボール bo-o-ru); gallon → 갤런 gal-leon (Japanese ガロン ga-ron). Note that [l] is always geminated intervocallically in transcriptions. E.g.: Hellen → 헬렌 Hel-len. Syllable-initially, the foreign liquid sounds /r/ and /l/ are rendered as /r/. E.g.: right and light → 라이트 ra-i-teu (Japanese ライト ra-i-to)

Consonants and vowels are transcribed to the native ones that approximate them the most, because, of course, Korean does not have all the sounds of all languages, nor has it developed any new sounds due to recent linguistic contact like Japanese with new sounds like /f/ or even /v/. E.g.: father → 파더 pa-deo (Japanese ファザー fa-za-a. Particularly, transcription into Korean tend to be more conservative as it only employs available hangul syllables, rather than establishing new, non-native combinations like Japanese. For example, the English word "warrior" is transcribed into Korean as 워리어 wo-ri-eo using 워, a pre-existing syllable composed of ᅮ u and ᅥ eo, rather than with a combination of u and o; in contrast, it is transcribed into Japanese as ウォリアー wo-ri-a-a, using ウォ, a non-native combination. On another note, the foreign phoneme /v/ is always transcribed as ᆸ b(eu) (native) into Korean, but as either b(u) (native) or v(u) (non-native) into Japanese.