Learning Hangeul ( the Korean alphabet ) is really easy! It is also important to be able to read and write and not depend on romanisation. So if you want to learn Korean, a good starting place is the alphabet!
Vowels - vowels can be split into two categories, basic and double. Let’s start with the basic vowels:
ㅏ (a) - similar to the a in “want”
ㅓ (eo) - similar to the o in “done”
ㅣ (i) - similar to the ee in “keep”
ㅗ (o) - similar to the o in “tow” (to help you remember this, I think of the vertical line being Over the horizontal line)
ㅜ (u) - similar to the u in “rude” (to help you remember this, I think of the vertical line being Under the horizontal line)
ㅡ (eu) - similar to the u in “push”
And that was all the basic vowels, if you learn those learning the double vowels will be super easy!!
ㅑ (ya) - similar to the ya in “yahoo”
ㅐ (ae) - similar to the e in “pet”
ㅒ (yae) - similar to the ye in “yes”
ㅕ (yeo) - similar to the yo in “young”
ㅔ (e) - similar to the e in “pet”
ㅖ (ye) - similar to the ye in “yes”
ㅛ (yo) - similar to the yo in “yodel”
ㅠ (yu) - similar to the yu in “yule”
ㅘ (wa) - similar to the wa in “want”
ㅙ (wae) - similar to the we in “wet”
ㅚ (oe) - similar to the we in “wet”
ㅝ (weo) - similar to the wo in “worry”
ㅞ (we) - similar to the we in “wet”
ㅟ (wi) - similar to the wee in “week”
ㅢ (ui) - similar to the u in “push” plus the ee in “keep”
And thats all the vowels!! So lets move onto consonants, these can also be split into categories - basic, double and strong. We’ll start with the basic:
ㄱ (g,k) pronounced similar to k at the beginning of a word and end of a syllable, in other positions, it is closer to g
ㄷ (d,t) pronounced similar to t at the beginning of a word and end of a syllable, in other positions, it is closer to d
ㄹ (r,l) pronounced similar to l at the end of a syllable, in other positions, it is closer to r
ㅂ (b,p) pronounced similar to p at the beginning of a word and end of a syllable, in other positions, it is closer to b
ㅅ (s,sh) pronounced similar to sh before the vowels ㅣ , ㅕ , ㅑ , ㅠ , ㅛ in other positions it is closer to s
ㅇ (no sound, ng) has no sound when it comes at the beginning of a syllable, but is close to ng when it is at the end of a syllable
ㅈ (j,ch) pronounced similar to ch at the beginning of a word, in other positions, it is closer to j
Let’s move onto double consonants, these consonants pronunciation is harder than their singular, basic version:
And finally strong consonants! When you speak these they should make a forceful sound:
Thats the Korean alphabet!! It’s pretty simple and despite the fact it looked a bit daunting, I hope this helps in your studies and good luck!!
The word hangeul 한글 is made up of 2 syllables and 6 characters, a syllable will never start with a vowel which is why ㅇ makes no sound when its in the first position as it acts a place holder so that the first sound made in the syllable can be a vowel sound.
