A minimal pair is a pair of words that differ only in one sound, which demonstrates that a certain pair of sounds is contrastive.
In English,
[pʰ]and[b]form a minimal pair (bat[bæt]and pat[pʰæt]) and are contrastive, but[pʰ]and[p]are not. In Korean,[p],[pʰ], and[p͈]are contrastive because they form minimal pairs: 불[pul], 풀[pʰul], and 뿔[p͈ul].