Continuing from the last lesson, this lesson will introduce you to the Korean alphabet.
you’ll be able to read and write the Korean alphabet after this lesson.
Korean Alphabet System
The Korean alphabet has fewer letters than the English.
what makes Korean interesting is that we can create a variety of letters from combinations of basic consonants and vowels, which we’ll learn about in a moment.
Pronunciation of the Korean alphabet
The pronunciation of the Korean alphabet is similar to that of the English letters, so it’s easy to learn.
Let’s take a look at all the consonants and vowels.
The basic consonants
| Basic Consonants | Pronunciation | Romanization |
|---|---|---|
| ㄱ | g/k | |
| ㄴ | n | |
| ㄷ | d/t | |
| ㄹ | r/l | |
| ㅁ | m | |
| ㅂ | b/p | |
| ㅅ | s | |
| ㅇ | ng | |
| ㅈ | j | |
| ㅊ | ch | |
| ㅋ | k | |
| ㅌ | t | |
| ㅍ | p | |
| ㅎ | h |
The basic vowels
| Basic vowels | Pronunciation | Romanization |
|---|---|---|
| ㅏ | a | |
| ㅑ | ya | |
| ㅓ | eo | |
| ㅕ | yeo | |
| ㅗ | o | |
| ㅛ | yo | |
| ㅜ | u | |
| ㅠ | yu | |
| ㅡ | eu | |
| ㅣ | i |
Above, we studied 14 consonants and 10 vowels and their pronunciation.
However, there are actually 5 more consonants and 11 more vowels in addition to the 24 letters above.
They all consist of basic consonants and vowels, so once you’ve mastered them, you can easily move on to additional consonants and vowels.
Let’s learn about more consonants, vowels.
Additional consonants
| Consonants | Pronunciation | Romanization |
|---|---|---|
| ㄲ | kk | |
| ㄸ | tt | |
| ㅃ | pp | |
| ㅆ | ss | |
| ㅉ | jj |
Additional vowels
| vowels | Pronunciation | Romanization |
|---|---|---|
| ㅐ | ae | |
| ㅒ | aye | |
| ㅔ | e | |
| ㅖ | ye | |
| ㅘ | wa | |
| ㅙ | was | |
| ㅚ | oe | |
| ㅝ | wo | |
| ㅞ | we | |
| ㅟ | wi | |
| ㅢ | ui |
That’s all the consonants and vowels we’ve learned.
Next time, you’ll learn how to write all the letters you learned today.
