What is Hangul?
"Hangul" is the name of the writing system used all throughout Korea, both in South Korea and in North Korea. Specifically, it’s an alphabet, meaning that it’s made up of consonants and vowels, just like the English language.
Before the 1500s in Korea, there was no way of writing the Korean language. Instead, wealthy and educated Koreans would simply learn Chinese if they wanted to read and write. Because the Chinese language could only be studied by those with money and prestige, the majority of Korea was unfortunately illiterate. But all of this changed with the creation of the Korean alphabet, known as Hangul.
Hangul was introduced to Korea in 1446 by King Sejong (세종대왕), who also happens to be one of the most famous people in all of Korean history. This event was extremely important in the development of the Korean language, and allowed even the poorest Korean to read and write due to Hangul’s simplicity.
Do I Need to Learn Hangul?
The short answer is "yes." The long answer is also "yes." The only truly reliable way of writing and reading the Korean language is through Hangul. Although there are ways of using the English alphabet to spell Korean words, none of these are perfect, and all have their flaws – Hangul is the only true way of learning to correctly read and write Korean.
There are several systems available for writing the Korean language with the English alphabet, and yet none of them can correctly capture the sound, spelling, and meaning of the original word written at the same time.
For example, take the Korean word 독립문 ("Independence Gate"). Depending on which system you are using, it could be written as Dongnimmun, Toklipmun, or even Dog-Rib-Moon, among several others. While one system might preserve the actual sound of the word (Dongnimmun), it loses the original spelling in the process. A different system may preserve the original spelling (Toklipmun), but loses the actual sound. And while another system may preserve the original spelling and the original sound (Dog-Rib-Moon), it looks completely silly. In short, there is no substitute for learning to read and write Hangul.
Hangul is an Alphabet
Fortunately for you, Hangul is simple. As I mentioned, it’s an alphabet. As such, you only need to learn the letters in order to be able to construct every sound possible in the Korean language.
Although Hangul might look like complex symbols, such as Chinese, each syllable is composed of simple consonants and vowels. There are 10 unique vowels and 14 basic consonants in Hangul, making a total of 24 letters (contrast this with English which has 26 letters). Just like in English, consonants combine with vowels to form syllables, and words.
Syllables are written one letter at a time, and letters are written in order from left to right, and top to bottom.
Each syllable is written as a single block. For example, the word 한글 ("Hangul") is made up of two separate blocks, which are actually separate syllables – 한 and 글. The first syllable, 한, is made of three letters (ㅎ, ㅏ, and ㄴ). The second syllable, 글, is also made of three letters (ㄱ, ㅡ, and ㄹ). Although we haven’t learned what these letters mean yet, for now take note that letters – vowels and consonants – combine to form blocks of syllables. These syllables then combine to form words and sentences.
I’ll be with you through our entire process of learning Hangul and the Korean language in this book. Take your time with these lessons, and learn each new letter as well as you can. Having a solid grasp of Hangul will greatly help you later on with the lessons, as well as with your own personal goals of mastering the Korean language.
Basic Consonants and Vowels
Before we start covering all of the different letters, let’s first take a look at the basic structure of Hangul. To begin, we’ll take a look at three consonants and one vowel. We’ll learn how to combine consonants with vowels to create our first syllables.
Type: Consonant
Pronunciation: This is similar to a "k" or "g." However, it is not strong like a "k" in "kite," nor is it strong like a "g" in "great." It’s a bit softer, and somewhere between a "k" and a "g." To keep things simple, let’s call it a "g."
Number of Strokes: 1
Stroke Order: Starting from the top left, draw a single line to the right, and without lifting your writing instrument, curve down.
What is Stroke Order?
Before going any further, let’s take a moment to talk about stroke order. Every letter in Korean has a certain order in which it must be drawn. Think of stroke order like following a recipe; although you know what the end result should be, you have to make sure you get there by adding ingredients in the right order. Having proper stroke order is essential to producing good, legible Korean letters. Incorrect stroke order can easily result in the letter looking like something else – take my word on this for now.
It is much easier to learn proper stroke order in the beginning than to try to fix it later. Take care to practice proper stroke order from the beginning and you will thank me later.
Since it’s difficult to compare the Korean alphabet with English sounds (such as in the above letter ㄱ), all sounds in this book will be compared to American English as it is the most widely taught and used version of English internationally.
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: This is similar to an "a," as in the word "law" or "car." You can also think of it as the "ah" sound you might say when you’ve realized something.
Number of Strokes: 2
Stroke Order: Starting from the top, draw a single line down. Then draw a second, shorter line beginning from the middle of the first, going to the right.
Type: Consonant
Pronunciation: This is similar to an "n," such as in the word "now."
Number of Strokes: 1
Stroke Order: Starting from the top, draw a line down, and without lifting your writing instrument, continue drawing to the right.
Type: Consonant
Pronunciation: This is similar to a "t" or "d." However, it is not strong like a "t" in "ten," nor is it strong like a "d" in "dog." It’s a bit softer, and somewhere between a "t" and a "d." To keep things simple, let’s call it a "d."
Number of Strokes: 2
Stroke Order: Starting from the top left, draw a single line to the right. Start a second line from the left end of the first line, moving down then right, just like you did earlier when drawing ㄴ.
Making Syllables
Now that we’ve got a few consonants and a vowel to work with, let’s try making some syllables. Remember that a syllable, just like in English, consists of at least one vowel and at least one consonant.
Try to see what the following syllables will sound like, before reading their explanations. You can do this by covering the right side of the page as you complete each one.
ㄱ + ㅏ = ?
Answer: "ga"
ㄴ + ㅏ = ?
Answer: "na"
ㄷ + ㅏ = ?
Answer: "da"
Remember that ㄱ is not a strong "k" or a strong "g," and ㄷ is not a strong "t" or a strong "d." These sounds are softer, and somewhere between these two sounds.
As you can already see, many sounds in Korean do not have exact English equivalents. This is why it’s best to learn Korean through Hangul, instead of through writing the language with English or another writing system. Being able to pronounce Hangul correctly will greatly improve your overall Korean pronunciation.
But syllables in Hangul aren’t written like "ㄱ + ㅏ," so we need to learn the proper way to write them. Remember that Hangul uses blocks of syllables to create words. These blocks are formed in a few ways. Let’s take a look at what the above examples would look like written in Hangul as real syllable blocks.
가 / 나 / 다
Each of these syllable blocks contains at least one consonant and at least one vowel. Since these are our first basic syllables, they each contain only one consonant and only one vowel. Later on we’ll learn how to make more complex syllables using more letters.
Notice also how each of these is written – the consonant is on the left, and the vowel is on the right. This is due to the vowel that we used. The vowel that is used in a consonant will determine the way that a syllable block is written. For vertical vowels, such as ㅏ in the above examples, here’s the block form used to write them.
For block forms represented in this book, "C" represents a consonant and "V" represents a vowel.
Let’s re-write our first example (ㄱ + ㅏ) as a real syllable using the above block form.
This is what we get, but it looks a bit awkward, kind of like a robot wrote it. To make it more natural, the ㄱ is stretched out longer to make it match closer to the height of the ㅏ. Here’s how it will be written:
And just as English will have different ways of writing the alphabet (different styles or fonts), Korean will too. This is another reason why it’s important to learn the right stroke order. As long as you know the correct stroke order for a letter, you will be able to read Hangul written in any possible style.
Before moving on, practice writing a few syllables on your own.
Type: Consonant
Pronunciation: This is pronounced like an "m," as in the word "mother."
Number of Strokes: 3
Stroke Order: Starting from the top left, draw a single line down. Start a second line from the top of the first line, going to the right and then downward like drawing a ㄱ. Start the third line from the bottom of the first line, going to the right and connecting with the second line.
Be especially careful with the stroke order on ㅁ, as drawing it the wrong order (or just drawing a square) can easily cause it to appear as a different letter (ㅇ, which we will learn soon).
Type: Consonant
Pronunciation: This is similar to a "p" or "b." However, it is not strong like a "p" in "park," nor is it strong like a "b" in "bat." It’s a bit softer, and somewhere between a "p" and a "b." To keep things simple, let’s call it a "b."
Number of Strokes: 4
Stroke Order: Starting from the top left, draw a single line down. Start a second line parallel to the first, from the top, also going down. Start a third line from the middle of the first line, going to the right and connecting to the middle of the second line. Start a fourth line from the bottom of the first line, going to the right and connecting to the bottom of the second line.
Type: Consonant
Pronunciation: This is pronounced like "s," such as in the word "snake."
Number of Strokes: 2
Stroke Order: Starting from the top, draw a slightly curved line down sideways and to the left. Start a second line, also slightly curved, from the top of the first line, going sideways and to the right. Both lines should curve inward.
Type: Consonant
Pronunciation: This is similar to a "ch" or "j." However, it is not strong like a "ch" in "cherry," nor is it strong like a "j" in "job." It’s a bit softer, and somewhere between a "ch" and a "j." To keep things simple, let’s call it a "j."
Number of Strokes: 3
Stroke Order: Starting from the top left, draw a line to the right. Start a second line from the middle of the first line, going down and to the left. Start a third line again from the middle of the first line, going down and to the right. You can think of this letter as a flat line sitting on top of a ㅅ. Just like ㅅ, make sure to curve the two bottom lines inward slightly.
Advanced Notes:
You might also see this letter written in the above way; either way is fine. To draw it this way, start the first stroke the same way, but begin the second line from the right end of the first line. The third stroke will then instead begin from the middle of the second stroke. Here, the second stroke will curve, just like for ㅅ, but the third stroke will curve in the opposite direction. Feel free to write this letter either way you’d prefer.
Type: Consonant
Pronunciation: This is pronounced similar to an "h," as in the word "hall."
Number of Strokes: 3
Stroke Order: Starting from the top, draw a short line downward. Start the second stroke on the left, going to the right, and connecting with the first stroke in the middle. The third stroke is simply a circle, but you should start drawing it from the very top, going counterclockwise.
This consonant might remind you of a stick figure’s head wearing a pointed hat.
Advanced Notes:
You might also see this letter written in the above way; either way is fine. To draw it this way, start the first stroke by going parallel to the second stroke, instead of perpendicular to it. The rest is completed the same way.
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: This is pronounced like an "o," as in the word "old."
Number of Strokes: 2
Stroke Order: Starting from the top, draw a short line downward. Start the second stroke on the left, going to the right, and connecting with the first stroke in the middle. It will look like the top part of ㅎ, only larger.
When you say this vowel, your lips will round into an "o" shape.
Now that we’ve introduced this new vowel (ㅗ), there’s an additional block form we can use to create syllables with. Previously, we learned the following method for vertical vowels, such as ㅏ.
But now we can also make syllables using horizontal vowels, such as ㅗ. Here’s what that block form would look like:
Using this format, let’s take the letters ㅁ ("m") and ㅗ ("o") and combine them together. This would then be pronounced as "mo."
This can then be written on its own to look like:
Reading Practice
Using every letter that we’ve covered so far (ㄱ, ㅏ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅈ, ㅅ, ㅎ, ㅗ), let’s make some new syllables. Try to read them on your own before looking at the explanations.
ㄱ + ㅗ = 고
Answer: "go"
ㄱ + ㅏ = 가
Answer: "ga"
ㄴ + ㅗ = 노
Answer: "no"
ㄴ + ㅏ = 나
Answer: "na"
ㄷ + ㅗ = 도
Answer: "do"
ㄷ + ㅏ = 다
Answer: "da"
ㅁ + ㅗ = 모
Answer: "mo"
ㅁ + ㅏ = 마
Answer: "ma"
ㅂ + ㅗ = 보
Answer: "bo"
ㅂ + ㅏ = 바
Answer: "ba"
ㅈ + ㅗ = 조
Answer: "jo"
ㅈ + ㅏ = 자
Answer: "ja"
ㅅ + ㅗ = 소
Answer: "so"
ㅅ + ㅏ = 사
Answer: "sa"
ㅎ + ㅗ = 호
Answer: "ho"
ㅎ + ㅏ = 하
Answer: "ha"
Above is every possible combination of two-letter syllables that we can make using only the letters that what we’ve learned so far.
Practice writing your own syllables below, using what we’ve learned so far.
More Consonants
Believe it or not, we’ve almost finished learning all of the basic consonants in Hangul. There are just two more, which we’ll cover now.
Type: Consonant
Pronunciation: This is pronounced like an "l" sound, such as in the word "long." However, when you say ㄹ, position your tongue as if you were saying a "d" (such as in "dog") – then say "l" instead. It will come out sounding like a cross between an "l" and an "r," and this is exactly what you will want it to sound like.
Number of Strokes: 3
Stroke Order: Starting from the top left, draw a single line to the right, and without lifting your writing instrument, curve down – just like ㄱ. Start the second line, a single straight line going from left to right and connecting at the end of the first line. The third line will start from the left side of the second line, going downward, then to the right – just like when drawing ㄴ.
Although it may be tempting, do not write this letter with one stroke. It’s essential to maintain the correct stroke order. Even if the end result might appear similar to you, it will not look correct to the trained eye of a native Korean speaker.
Type: Consonant
Pronunciation: This is pronounced "ng," such as in the word "song" or "hang," but only when ㅇ is used at the end of a syllable.
Number of Strokes: 1
Stroke Order: Start from the top, and draw a circle going counterclockwise (just like you did for ㅎ).
Although ㅇ is pronounced "ng" at the end of a syllable, when it’s used at the beginning of a syllable it has no sound. We’ll go over how to use this letter in detail soon.
Vowel Sounds
So far we’ve learned how to combine consonants with vowels to form syllable blocks, but what if we want to have a vowel sound by itself? What if we only want to say the sound that ㅏ makes?
We learned that a syllable must have at least one consonant and one vowel. In this case, we can use ㅇ as the consonant, which has no sound when used at the beginning of a syllable (its "ng" sound only applies when ㅇ appears at the end of a syllable, which we will cover soon).
ㅇ + ㅏ = 아
Answer: "a"
ㅇ + ㅗ = 오
Answer: "o"
Remember that it would be incorrect to write ㅏ or ㅗon their own, because every syllable in Korean must have at least one consonant and one vowel.
Quick Reading Practice
Practice reading the following syllables. Just as before, first try reading them on your own before looking at their answers.
ㄹ + ㅗ = 로
Answer: "lo"
ㅇ + ㅗ = 오
Answer: "o"
ㄹ + ㅏ = 라
Answer: "la"
ㅇ + ㅏ = 아
Answer: "a"
Three Letter Syllables
Up until now we’ve only been working with syllables using two letters – one consonant and one vowel. We need to learn how to make syllables with two consonants and one vowel. Let’s look at the syllable blocks we can use to do this.
Like before, the type of syllable block you will choose depends on whether you’re using a vertical vowel (such as ㅏ) or a horizontal vowel (such as ㅗ).
For vertical vowels, we have this syllable block:
And for horizontal vowels, we have this syllable block:
Let’s take a look at some examples of various three letter syllables. Try to guess what they will sound like on your own first, before looking at the answers.
ㄹ + ㅏ + ㅇ = 랑
Answer: "lang"
ㄱ + ㅏ + ㄴ = 간
Answer: "gan"
ㅁ + ㅗ + ㅁ = 몸
Answer: "mom"
ㅇ + ㅏ + ㅇ = 앙
Answer: "ang"
ㅇ + ㅗ + ㅇ = 옹
Answer: "ong"
ㄴ + ㅗ + ㄹ = 놀
Answer: "nol"
ㅅ + ㅗ + ㄴ = 손
Answer: "son"
ㄴ + ㅏ + ㄱ = 낙
Answer: "nag"
ㄷ + ㅏ + ㅂ = 답
Answer: "dab"
ㅈ + ㅗ + ㄱ = 족
Answer: "jog"
More Vowels
We’ve done everything so far using only two vowels, ㅏ and ㅗ. Let’s go over some more vowels we can use to expand our Korean.
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: The vowel this sound makes is similar to "uh" – as if you’re thinking of something. You can also think of it as the "uh" sound at the beginning of the word "up."
Number of Strokes: 2
Stroke Order: Starting from the left, draw a short line going to the right, which will touch the middle of the second line. Draw a longer second line from the top, going down.
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: This is pronounced like the "u" sound in the word "glue."
Number of Strokes: 2
Stroke Order: Starting from the left, draw a line to the right. Start a second line from the middle of the first line, going down.
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: This is pronounced like "oo" in the word "good."
Number of Strokes: 1
Stroke Order: Start from the left and draw a single straight line to the right.
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: This is pronounced like "ee" in the word "tree."
Number of Strokes: 1
Stroke Order: Start from the top and draw a single straight line down.
More Practice
Try to read the following syllables on your own before reading their pronunciation.
ㅁ + ㅓ = 머
Answer: "muh"
ㄱ + ㅜ = 구
Answer: "gu"
ㅂ + ㅡ = 브
Answer: "boo" ("oo" as in "good")
ㅎ + ㅣ = 히
Answer: "hee"
ㅅ + ㅣ
When you combine ㅅ with ㅣ you get a slightly different result than what you might expect. Instead of becoming "see" (like the English word) it actually becomes "shee" (like the word "she" in English).
ㅅ + ㅣ = 시
Answer: "shee"
ㅅ + ㅣ + ㄴ = 신
Answer: "sheen"
ㅅ + ㅣ + ㄹ = 실
Answer: "sheel"
ㅅ + ㅣ + ㅇ = 싱
Answer: "sheeng"
ㅅ + ㅣ + ㅁ = 심
Answer: "sheem"
ㅅ + ㅣ + ㄱ = 식
Answer: "sheeg"
ㅅ + ㅣ + ㅂ = 십
Answer: "sheeb"
Practice writing a few syllables using the following block forms.
Your First Korean Words
We’ve covered several consonants and vowels, and now it’s time to start learning some real words (just a few). We’ll actually be going over these words again later in the lessons (so don’t stress too much about memorizing them), but take a moment to look over them here and become familiar with as many of them as you can. Just like before, try reading them on your own before looking at the answers.
한글 - "Hangul" (the Korean alphabet)
Answer: "han-gool" ("oo" as in "good")
한국 - "Korea"
Answer: "han-guk" ("u" as in "glue")
저 - "I" or "me"
Answer: "juh"
당신 - "You"
Answer: "dang-sheen"
More Vowels
Let’s continue learning the rest of the vowels in 한글.
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: This is pronounced like the "e" in the word "egg." You can also think of it as an "eh" sound.
Number of Strokes: 3
Stroke Order: Start from the left, drawing a short line to the right (this will touch the middle of the second line). The second line starts from the top, going down and perpendicular to the first line. Begin the third line from the top, parallel to the second line, going down.
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: This is pronounced like the "e" in the word "egg."
Number of Strokes: 3
Stroke Order: Start from the top left, drawing a line straight down. Draw the second line starting from the middle of the first line, going to the right (this will touch the middle of the third line, connecting the middles of the first and third line together). Draw the third line parallel to the first line, starting from the top and going down.
ㅐ is only pronounced slightly differently from ㅔ, with the lips a tiny bit wider apart, and actually the difference is not very important. Even many Koreans are not able to distinguish them by sound (but will be able to distinguish the spelling). Therefore, although ㅐ is slightly different from ㅔ, feel free to pronounce ㅐ the same way as ㅔ ("eh") until you are more comfortable with distinguishing it.
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: This is pronounced like "ya," such as in the expression "ya’ll."
Number of Strokes: 3
Stroke Order: Start from the top, drawing a line straight down. Draw the second line starting from 1/3 down the first line, going to the right. Draw the third line starting from 2/3 down the first line, also going to the right, and parallel to the second line.
You can also think of this vowel as being ㅣ combined with ㅏ ("ee" + "a" = "ya").
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: This is pronounced "yo," like the slang word "yo."
Number of Strokes: 3
Stroke Order: Start from the top and draw a line down (this will connect at the point 1/3 of the way to the right on the third line). Begin the second line parallel to the first, going down (this will connect at the point 2/3 of the way to the right on the third line). Draw the third line from left to right, connecting at the end of the first and second lines. Except for having a different stroke order, this letter is a ㅑ turned on its back.
You can also think of this vowel as being ㅣ combined with ㅗ ("ee" + "o" = "yo").
More Practice
Try to read the following syllables on your own before looking at their pronunciations.
ㅇ + ㅔ = 에
Answer: "e" ("e" in "egg")
ㅇ + ㅐ = 애
Answer: "e" (the "e" sound in "egg")
ㅇ + ㅑ = 야
Answer: "ya"
ㅇ + ㅛ = 요
Answer: "yo"
ㄱ + ㅔ = 게
Answer: "ge"
ㄱ + ㅑ = 갸
Answer: "gya"
ㄱ + ㅛ = 교
Answer: "gyo"
ㄹ + ㅔ = 레
Answer: "le"
ㄹ + ㅏ = 라
Answer: "la"
ㄹ + ㅛ = 료
Answer: "lyo"
ㅈ + ㅐ = 재
Answer: "je"
ㅈ + ㅑ = 쟈
Answer: "jya"
ㅈ + ㅛ = 죠
Answer: "jyo"
ㅅ + ㅑ = 샤
Answer: "shya"*
ㅅ + ㅛ = 쇼
Answer: "shyo"*
*ㅅ will actually become "sh" not only before ㅣ, but also before ㅑ and ㅛ.
Let’s start taking a look at some examples that are a bit longer.
ㅇ + ㅔ + ㄹ + ㅂ + ㅣ + ㅅ + ㅡ = 엘비스
Answer: "el-bee-soo" ("oo" as in "good")
ㅎ + ㅔ + ㅇ + ㅓ + ㅁ = 헤엄
Answer: "he-uhm"
ㅇ + ㅐ + ㄱ + ㅈ + ㅔ = 액제
Answer: "eg-je"
ㅁ + ㅐ + ㄱ + ㅈ + ㅜ = 맥주
Answer: "meg-ju"
ㅅ + ㅏ + ㄴ + ㅑ + ㅇ = 사냥
Answer: "sa-nyang"
ㄴ + ㅑ + ㅁ + ㄴ + ㅑ + ㅁ = 냠냠
Answer: "nyam-nyam"
ㅇ + ㅛ + ㄱ + ㅈ + ㅗ = 욕조
Answer: "yog-jo"
ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄱ + ㄱ + ㅛ = 학교
Answer: "hag-gyo"
ㅎ + ㅛ + ㅈ + ㅓ + ㅇ = 효정
Answer: "hyo-juhng"
Goodbye Romanization
"It’s not you. It’s me." As you’ve probably noticed already, writing Korean using Romanization (using the English alphabet) is a bit messy, and as we go on it will grow even further away from the actual Korean sounds. This is why from now on, there will be no more Romanization used in this book, with the exception of teaching pronunciation of new sounds. By the start of Chapter 1, it will be completely absent from this book.
It’s important to become comfortable with how 한글 actually sounds, and to steer away from writing or even reading the sounds written with the English alphabet.
It might be a bit difficult at first, but I promise you that your Korean will improve much more by learning the language exclusively through 한글.
Now let’s continue learning the rest of the letters in 한글.
New Vocabulary
Let’s go over just a few more words that we can learn using the letters we know so far. Like before, don’t stress about memorizing these words, as we’ll be covering them again later in this book.
네 - "yes"
아니요 - "no"
개 - "dog"
고양이 - "cat"
용 - "dragon"
Vowels…. Again?
We’re almost at the finish line. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. There are only a few more vowels left in 한글to learn.
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: This is a combination of a "y" sound with ㅓ, so it is pronounced like "yuh."
Number of Strokes: 3
Stroke Order: Draw a short line from left to right (this line will connect 1/3 down the third line). Draw a second line below, parallel to the first, going from left to right (this line will connect 2/3 down the third line). Draw the third line starting from the top, going straight down and touching the first two lines.
Knowing how to pronounce ㅓwill make pronouncing this letter simple.
You can also think of this vowel as being ㅣ combined with ㅓ ("ee" + "uh" = "yuh").
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: This is a combination of a "y" sound with ㅜ, so it is pronounced "yu" (like the English word "you").
Number of Strokes: 3
Stroke Order: Start from the top left, drawing a line to the right. Begin the second line from the point 1/3 of the way to the right on the first line. Begin the third line parallel to the second from the point 2/3 of the way to the right on the first line, going down. Except for having a different stroke order, this letter is a ㅛ turned upside down.
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: This is a combination of a "y" sound with ㅔ, so it is pronounced "ye."
Number of Strokes: 4
Stroke Order: First draw a ㅕ, then draw a ㅣ parallel to the right of it.
You can also think of this vowel as being ㅣ combined with ㅔ ("ee" + "eh" = "yeh").
Type: Vowel
Pronunciation: This is a combination of a "y" sound with ㅐ, so it is pronounced "ye."
Number of Strokes: 4
Stroke Order: First draw a ㅑ, then draw a ㅣ parallel to the right of it.
You can also think of this vowel as being ㅣ combined with ㅐ ("ee" + "eh" = "yeh").
More Practice
Try reading the following syllables on your own.
여 /유 / 예 / 얘 / 열 / 육 / 례 / 쟤 / 벼 / 규 / 계 / 걔
Blending Syllables Together
We learned that ㅇ has no sound when at the beginning of a syllable. Because of this, it essentially acts like an empty space. Therefore, whatever letter that comes before it will replace it, as if it never existed.
미국인 "an American"
We can read this word as 미 + 국 + 인, right? Yes. But if you wanted to say it at a regular speed, what would happen? Try saying it yourself. Since the ㅇ in the beginning of 인 will have no sound, this allows the sound before it to flow through, taking its place.
미국인 would therefore be said 미구긴 when speaking at a normal speed, to make it easier to pronounce.
Let’s take a look at some more examples of this happening.
Spelling → Pronunciation
백인 → 배긴
믿어 → 미더
사람이 → 사라미
할아버지 → 하라버지
만이 → 마니
걸어 → 거러
발음 → 바름
한옥 → 하녹
연어 → 여너
한우 → 하누
Before we move on, practice writing a few syllables using the block forms we’ve learned. You can combine any characters that you’d like. The more you practice, the faster you’ll be able to write and read, and the better you’ll be able to learn Korean.
Four Letter Syllables
So far we’ve seen both two letter and three letter syllables. Now let’s take a look at syllables that have four letters in them. Here’s what the block form will look like for vertical, or for horizontal vowels.
For vertical vowels, we have this syllable block:
And for horizontal vowels, we have this syllable block:
Three consonants and one vowel will come together to form a four letter syllable. Here are some examples using four letter syllables, along with their pronunciations:
Spelling → Pronunciation
앉아 → 안자
읽은 → 일근
밝은 → 발근
삶이 → 살미
맑은 → 말근
흙을 → 흘글
값이 → 갑시
긁어 → 글거
For syllables that have two consonants on the bottom, one of them being ㄹ, and which are not followed by any other letter which might affect the pronunciation (such as being followed by ㅇ, allowing the sound to simply pass through), most of the time the consonant which is not ㄹ will be pronounced.
Some combinations you will see often are ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ, and ㅀ.
Spelling → Pronunciation
옮기다 → 옴기다
삶 → 삼
흙 → 흑
여덟 → 여덜*
*Note that I said most of the time. The above example is a common exception to the rule.
New Vocabulary
Let’s learn some more words. As before, don’t worry about memorizing these words as we’ll be going over them in later chapters.
안녕하세요. - "Hello."
미국인 - "an American"
한국인 - "a Korean"
삶 - "life"
Let’s take moment to practice writing some more syllables, using each of the possible forms. Try to make unique characters each time. As this is only practice, feel free to create any combination you’d like, provided it follows the rules for the block forms.
Moving Forward
Congratulations on learning all of the individual vowels and consonants in Korean. But wait, there’s more! We still need to cover double consonants (when two copies of the same consonant combine together), strong consonants (when a consonant is pronounced with more force) and diphthongs (when more than one vowel combines together). But if you know the vowels and consonants we’ve learned so far, these should all be a piece of cake. I’ll guide you through the next lesson as soon as you’re ready to tackle it.