Hangeul Learning

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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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