살 and 쌀 are the same word
Comments are so much “That’s the joke.”
I feel you, OP. When you can’t hear it, you can’t hear it.
I don’t get it. A little more context would be appreciated. Are they pronounced the same or mean the same or both?
They aren’t the same.
살 /sal/ “meat” is pronounced with [sʰ]. It’s roughly like the “ssh” in “grasshopper”.
쌀 /s͈al/ “uncooked rice” uses [s͈] instead. It’s a “tense” consonant; if I got it right the main difference is faucalised voice, you’re supposed to lower the larynx a bit while speaking it.
Since the difference yields different words, they’re a minimal pair so they aren’t allophones but different phonemes. If you speak Korean (I don’t) the difference between those two is on the same level as the one between English “bot” vs. “pot”, or between “bit” and “beet”. However since the contrast isn’t common out there they sound similar for non-speakers, and I think this to be what OP is trying to convey.
hate to do the um ackshully meme
but ㅅ has a softer ‘s’ pronounciation whereas ㅆ has a more excentuated SS sound where you move air with the bottom and top of your teeth put together when spoken
for the actual words themselves 살 is like the fat/skin of something and 쌀 is rice, def don’t want to mix up the two🤗
