Learning Hangeul ( the Korean alphabet ) is really easy! It is also important to be able to read and
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 gㄴ (n)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 dㄹ (r,l) pronounced similar to l at the end of a syllable, in other positions, it is closer to r ㅁ (m)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 bㅅ (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 syllableㅈ (j,ch) pronounced similar to ch at the beginning of a word, in other positions, it is closer to jLet’s move onto double consonants, these consonants pronunciation is harder than their singular, basic version:ㄲ (kk)ㄸ (tt)ㅃ (pp)ㅆ (ss)ㅉ (jj)And finally strong consonants! When you speak these they should make a forceful sound:ㅋ (k)ㅌ (t)ㅍ (p)ㅎ (h)ㅊ (ch)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!!Extra: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. A&R -- source link