How to Read Korean - Lesson 2 : Vowels

This is lesson 2 of 'How to Read Korean'. In this lesson, I will introduce you 6 basic vowels of Hangeul. Then, I will show you how to read and write in Hangeul since we know both basic consonants and vowels.

 This is pronounced as a in aha!

It is 'eo' sound but when you pronounced it is more like 'uh!' sound.

 This is pronounced as o in orange.

 This has u sound. When you pronounced it, it is more like 'woooo!'

 This letter is pronounced eu sound.

(It is hard to find English word that pronounced as this letter)

This letter is pronounced as i, it is more like the sound when you say alphabet E (EEEE!!)


Actually there are more consonants and vowels (double consonants and complex vowels). But I only showed you basic ones because I want to make this blog more easier for beginners.

Now that we are able to recognize both Hangeul consonants and vowels, we can read and write words in Korean. Using consonants and vowels we can make a syllable. With two or more syllable we can make a word.

Here are examples...

 

This syllable is made up of two consonants and one vowel. We learned that the first letter is pronounced as 'h' , second letter is pronounced as 'a' and third letter is pronounced as 'n'. So we made a syllable that sounds 'han'.

 

This syllable is also made up of two consonants and one vowel. First letter is pronounced as 'g' , second letter is pronounced as 'eu', and third one is pronounced as 'l'. So we can make a syllable that sounds 'geul'.

 

using two syllables we can make a word 'hangeul' which means Korean alphabet.

Did you notice that the vowels of two syllables are in different location?

If vowel has long vertical line like the first syllable, it is located next to the first consonant. If the vowel has long horizontal line like the second syllable, it is located under the first consonant.