So, Im just beginning to learn korean. I have seen the phrase "네,맞아요" - shouldnt it read "네,마자요"? For me it would be more logical, since the syllabels are ne-ma-ja-yo, not ne-maj-a-yo, but then I think my current understanding of the language and writing system is bad at best ; ).
I'm just a novice at Korean. I have only been learning for 6 months.
Yes, 네,맞아요 is the correct spelling. My advice to you is learn Hangul. Romanization just confused and frustrated me.
What they are trying to convey with the romanization is that in certain cases, the batchim (final consonant) is going to sound like it slides up into the place where the ㅇ is in the next syllable. You probably already know that ㅇis silent when it is the starting consonant in a syllable.
The good news is that these rules for pronunciation are consistent and can be easily learned. With a little practice, it will become second nature.
Probably not terribly helpful is a blog post of mine as I was figuring out the rules.
http://jreidy17.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/pronunciation-examples-by-native-korean/
I am taking Rob Julian's Korean Digital Academy online class. In two hours, he taught all of Hangul letters and explained in simple terms how to pronounce. I highly recommend KDA's classes, and registration is open now. http://www.koreandigitalacademy.com/
I'm not an expert at Korean but the final consonant sound often rolls over to the next syllable when it begins with a vowel. That's why it reads 맞아요, but sounds like 마자요.
