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HANGEUL CONSONANT
Here are the 14 consonants of Korean. These consonants are later coupled with a vowel tomake a block shaped syllable.
Before we get started, I'd like to tell you a little secret: Each consonant above contains a hint
about how to pronounce it! When designing Hangeul, King Sejong took into consideration
the shape of the mouth when making each sound. Below is an explanation of this system, as
well as information on how to write each letter. It is much easier to memorize Hangeul if you
practice writing the letters out for yourself. Please make note that the stroke order is quite
vital to ensuring legibility, so it is recommended that you learn the proper stroke order right
from the beginning to foster good habits. Luckily for us, we can make all 14 consonants by
simply adding strokes to 5 consonants in pink. So let's start with those.
THE FIRST FIVE
The first consonant in the Korean alphabet is and is said to have the
qualities of a tree according to Ohaeng, the philosophy of the 5 elements.
makes a sound that is fairly close to the sound of hard G in English. The
shape of represents the shape your tongue makes when you pronounce it.
See for yourself, try making a hard G sound and notice how your tongue draws upward and to
the back, like in the drawing."" comes next with a sound just like an "N" sound in English. When we
sound out the letter "" or "N" our tongue actually flattens down and
backward while the tip goes upward. As mentioned in the section on
Ohaeng, "" has the qualities of fire.
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As for "", try sounding out the sound "M". Do you notice how your lips
purse together? They make a shape that is almost the same as "". "" is said
to have the qualities of water.
The next consonant is "" which is an "S" sort of sound. The "" shape
symbolizes the closed position of your teeth when you push the wind through
them to make that "S" sound. "" posesses the qualities of gold.And the last of the 5 basic consonants is "" which makes a "ng" sound (Or is
silent if it is the first consonant). The "" represents the outline of the throat
when that sound is made. "" has the qualities of earth.
THE REST OF FAMILY
LetterLetter
Name*Sound (Approx. to English)
Sample
Vocab
Gieok G(grand)
Nieun N(none)
Degeut D (door)
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Letter
Letter
Name* Sound (Approx. to English)
Sample
Vocab
Rieul
Between R and L. Pretend you are making an
R sound and then push the tip of your tongue
forward a tad.
Mieum M (money)
BieupB (like English B, but without voicing the
sound)
Siot S (sing)
Ieungsilent at beginning of syllable, NG (sing) if at
ending.
JieutSimilar to J with tongue pressed up behind the
teeth
Chieut CH (cheese)
Kieuk K (key)
Tieut T (try)
Pieup P (pizza)
Hieut H (high)
*Please note: These are the official names of the letter, given for your reference (Like theletter "G" is called "gee") These are not very important when beginning, you can learn them
slowly over time. Instead focus on what sound each letter produces.
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HANGEUL VOWEL
The trick I use to remember which vowels make which sound is to pretend that each symbol
is like an arrow, telling me which direction my breath should go.Try to remember this while
you study!
Hangeul is a very scientific, logical and simple to learn alphabet. Therefore, it can be quite
surprising to think that it is based very heavily on oriental philosophy. As we move on to
study the Hangeul vowels, it's important to stop and learn a little bit about what notions they
were based on. If you haven't yet, please take a moment and read Oriental Philosophy in
Hangeul.
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The theory of Cheonjiin states that the universe is made up of three things, Heaven (.), earth
() and man (). The symbols for each of these things are combined in various ways to
create the hangeul vowels. It should be noted that the dot symbolizing heaven is now often
wrote as a short horizontal line rather than a dot. These basic vowels can be put together to
create combined vowels sounds (known as dipthongs). But once you know the basics vowels,
its easy to understand the combined vowels.
Vowel Sound
Pronunciation Tips (similar sounds
in American English)Sample Vocab
a announcer, father (child)
ya yacht (baseball)
eo the o in dog/frog, lawn (when)
yeo yonder (England)
o home (today)
yo yo-yo (cooking)
u too, shoe, moon (milk)
yu you (broth)
eu good (keep mouth relaxed) (Friday)
e meet (mouth
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The combining of vowels is very common in most languages. Take the word Ice for
example. When we say the vowel sound, it sounds more like ah-ee. In Korean, these
combined vowels are accomplished by literally combining the basic vowels.
The vowel is simply a combination of and l. And is a combination of and l.
Although long ago, they made a different sound, now they are pronounced the same. If you
say those very fast, you simply get a sound like aye (+ ) and (+) also have
the same sound, simplyor with a Y sound added to make yae (+) and(
and ) also have come to be pronounced the same way, Wae. (+) is a sound
and an sound blended together. Wo (+) is pronounced by keeping your mouth
flat and relaxed and saying
and then adding
on the end. If you say it quickly itll be
like gooey
BRING IT ALL TOGETHER
It is once again important to talk about oriental philosophy in this section. Yin and
Yang is all about harmony. If one letter exists all on its own, it goes against the rules of Yin
and Yang. It is no problem if we want to make a syllable starting with a consonant and a
vowel, because they balance eachother out. But what if the sylable is just a vowel sound, all
by itself?
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You learned in the consonant section that the letter "" sometimes makes the sound
"ng" and sometimes is silent. "" is silent when it is ahead of a vowel serving as a place
marker.
Let me give you an example: the word "child" in Korean sounds roughly like "ah-ee",
both sylables start with vowels. So how would we write it? The vowel that makes the "A"
sound is "", while the "E" sound is represented by the letter "" . We must combine each
vowel with the silent "" in order to create balanced syllables and thus a balanced word.
) , child.
Another example is the word "cucumber" which sounds like "oh-ee" in Korean. For
this we would need "" and "" and if we make sylables and combine them into a word, we
have ) , Cucumber.
It is because of this rule, letters are never alone. They are always accompanied by a
consonant, even if the syllable contains only a vowel sound. The consonant serves as Yin
and the vowel serves as Yang, creating harmony.
As you know, consonants and vowels must be combined in order to make a sound unit. The
consonant and vowel are pronounced as one sound. One consonant and one vowel can make
up a syllable, as in the examples below.
Up to two consonants can also be added at the bottom of the syllable, and they have a special
name " " (bachim). However, it is most common for there to be only one .
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Here are some examples of words that have two :
There is another interesting point related to Yin and Yang that appears in the Korean
language. For those who go on to advanced Korean studies, knowing this will surely help
you. It was thought that vowels have either positive or negative values. The vowels that
point up or to the right were seen as bright and positive (,), and the ones that point down
or to the left were seen as dark and negative (,).
This comes out quite often in colors. It's not just the color that is described, but the feeling
that one gets when in contact with that color. For example:
L -5 is used to express light blue and light yellow.Notice how "" and "" are used.
1 is used to express dark blue and dark yellow and uses ",).
This concept can also be found in the words (bright) and i (dark).
Knowing this will make it easier for students of Korean to understand why words that sound
so much the same could have such different connotations.
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HANGEUL CHART
Here is a basic chart of how the consonants and vowels of Hangeul combine. From here,
s are simply put on the bottom. Writing this over a few times is a great way to
memorize.
If you look closely, you can find some basic Korean vocabulary words! For example, if you
don't like the (rain) you could stay inside and have a glass of warm eeee (milk) or perhaps
some (tea). Or you could go to the hospital and measure your YYYY(height), get a (blood)
test, or check and see if your (nose) or (tongue) are functioning properly.
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CHEAT SHEET
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USEFUL PHRASES
USEFUL LINKS
http://www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul http://www.talktomeinkorean.com/ http://rki.kbs.co.kr/learn_korean/lessons/e_index.htm http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/CU/CU_EN_9_9_1_12.jsp
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