LEARN KOREAN VOWELS

Let's start our korean language learning journey by learning the basics of hangul. 

You may check this video to learn the vowels of the korean alphabet or writing system. 

If the english alphabet has 5 vowel sounds namely "a,e,i,o,u", korean's hangul has the following vowels sounds as discussed on the video:

Plain vowel sounds:

a, e, i, o, u, eo, eu, ae

In hangul these are written as:

a : ㅏ

eo: ㅓ

o: ㅗ

u: ㅜ

i: ㅣ

eu: ㅡ

ae: ㅐ

e: ㅔ

Y-vowel sounds

If you would notice some of the plain vowels have middle strokes. If those middle strokes are duplicated, it could result to a y-sound such as the following:

ya : ㅑ

yeo: ㅕ

yo: ㅛ

yu: ㅠ

yae: ㅒ

ye: ㅖ

W-vowel sounds

 If some of the plain vowel sounds are combined, w-sounds can be formed.

wa = 와 = ㅗ(o) + ㅏ(a)

The "wa" sound is formed by combining the "o" and "a" sounds. Take note that as you write this, you would need a no sound "ㅇ" or "iring" character on the first part of the syllable. 

Other w-vowel sounds that may be formed are the "wi" and "wo" sounds.

wi = 외 = ㅗ(u) + ㅣ(i)

wo = 워 = ㅜ(u) + ㅓ (eo)

Now that you have an idea about the vowels/vowel sounds of hangul, the next thing that we should learn are the consonants. Check out our article about korean consonants. 

Thank you!