One of the first steps in your journey to learning Korean is to get to grips with the Korean alphabet - 한글(Hangeul). The sooner you learn to read and write in 한글, the sooner you will reach your goals when it comes to fluency. Once you can recognise the characters, the rest is just a matter of familiarity and your studies will come on in leaps and bounds - trust me!
In this blog, we will be covering a basic introduction to Hangeul, a.k.a. what the letters are, how to write them and how they sound. For a full breakdown of all the topics we will cover in this blog post... see below.
Hangeul - A Brief Introduction:
Hangeul was invented by King Sejong the Great in 1443 to increase literacy throughout Korea. Prior to its invention, the Korean writing system used Hanja - a logographic (see pictorial) writing system based on Chinese characters which was very complex.
Hangeul (commonly spelled Hangul in English) is a very logical alphabet once you get to grips with it.
Modern Hangeul consists of 24 basic letters, 10 vowels and 14 consonants, unlike the English language which has 26. However, like the English language, certain combinations of letters produce different sounds, making up the additional complex letters we see in the Korean alphabet. So, we have a lot to learn.
Korean Vowels:
Korean letters are all based on lines and dots, though the dots are now represented as smaller lines in modern Hangeul. This is especially clear in the Korean vowels which we can see below.
ㅏ = a (pronounced ah like 'father')
ㅑ = ya
ㅓ = eo (pronounced o as in 'top')
ㅕ = yeo
ㅗ = o (pronounced 'oh')
ㅛ = yo
ㅜ = u (pronounced oo as in 'stool')
ㅠ = yu
ㅡ = eu (pronounced 'uh' with your teeth together - like the u in 'put')
ㅣ = I (pronounced ee as in week)
Alongside these basic vowels, we then have some more complex ones that are usually a combination of basic vowels, known as Diphthongs.
ㅐ = ae (pronounced ay as in 'way')
ㅒ = yae
ㅔ = e (pronounced eh as in 'wet')
ㅔ = ye
와 = wa (pronounced wa like the a in 'hat')
왜 = wae (pronounced 'way')
외 = oe (pronounced 'way')
워 = wo (pronounced
웨 = we (pronounced we the same as 'wet')
위 = wi (pronounced wii - like the Nintendo)
의 = ui (pronounced uii - slightly more emphasis on the 'u' sound, but pretty much the same as wii)
You will have noticed that some of these are pronounced the same, which definitely makes life more difficult. Luckily, you will find that some of these pairings occur much more commonly than others so you will soon get an inkling of which one to choose when spelling!
You may have also seen that I have added another 'shape' as it were for the bottom 7 complex consonants - ㅇ. This is a very important letter in Korean. When it prefaces any syllable that starts with a vowel it is a silent letter in these cases, however, if ㅇ is found at the 'end' of a syllable, it makes an 'ng' sound.
Korean Consonants:
Now we move on to Korean consonants. Much like Korean vowels, there are basic and complex characters, however, unlike vowels, the Korean consonants - at least the basic ones - also have their own names, shall we take a look at them?
ㄱ = 'giyeok' = G/K depending on its position in the syllable
ㄴ = 'nien' = N
ㄷ = 'digut' = D
ㄹ = 'riel' = R/L depending on if it is followed by a consonant or a vowel
ㅁ = 'Mium' = M
ㅂ = 'biup' = B/M depending on its position in the syllable
ㅅ = 'shiot' = S
ㅇ = 'iung' = NG or silent if at the beginning of a syllable
ㅈ = 'jiut' = J
ㅊ = 'Chiut' = CH
ㅋ = 'kiuek' = K*
ㅌ = 'tiut' = T*
ㅍ = 'piup' = P*
ㅎ = 'hiut' = H
* These letters are aspirated - they start sharp and end a little more breathy. Now we will take a look at the complex consonants.
ㄲ = 'ssang giyeok' = KK
ㄸ = 'ssang digut' = TT
ㅃ = 'ssang biup' = PP
ㅆ = 'ssang shiot' = SS
ㅉ = 'ssang jiut' = TCH
Here ssang means double as we can see by the fact that these consonants are written as a double symbol of some of the basic consonants above. It is interesting to note that the more sharp pronunciation of the basic consonant (e.g. ㅂ = b/p) is the one we use for these 'double consonants'.
Stroke Order for Writing Letters:
In Korea, great emphasis is placed on the way letters are written, not just their shape. In the Chinese alphabet, the 'intention' of a letter/symbol is encoded in the specific order you place brushstrokes and the same is true for Korean. The order in which you write - though not always the easiest way of writing the letter, holds important symbolism.
Side note: I'd focus on learning the letters first and writing them in a way that works for you before really worrying about stroke order, however, it is useful to introduce it here so that you can be aware if you are following stroke order or if you will one day have to edit how you write.
In general, there are two rules to follow,
Always work top to bottom
Always work left to right
What this means is you start with the top left corner of a letter and work from there! This is best explained via diagrams!
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