Hangeul-Vowels

LET'S LEARN HANEGUL (한글)! PART 2

So, you've practiced the consonant letters already, right? If you haven't, check out part one of Let's Learn Hangeul! After this lesson you will be able to identify the vowels and get ready to read simple words in Hangeul.

Hangeul has 10 'basic' vowels, then there are modifications to these vowels to create different sounds- since the structure of the vowel is the same, and there's only one stroke added they're not considered new letters. You'll understand what I mean in a minute.

LET'S START!


VOWELS- English letters cannot accurately represent Korean letters, but the sound of English letters can help give you an idea of the real sounds. 

ㅏ-ah 

ㅓ-eo 

ㅗ-oh

ㅜ-oo (as in moon)

ㅡ-eu 

ㅣ-ee

ㅑ-yah

ㅕ-yeo

ㅛ-yo 

ㅠ-yoo

The following are the ones I was talking about earlier, they just have an additional stroke: 

ㅐ- ae 

ㅔ-eh 

ㅒ-yae 

ㅖ-yeh

AND NOW- we have the 'combined vowels'. They're exactly what their name describes, a combination of vowels to create a sound. These are NOT new vowels, they're vowels mentioned above but learning the combinations will make it easier and faster for you to read Hangeul. 

I will show you in form of an equation which vowels are combined, how they look together and how they sound.

COMBINED VOWELS

ㅗ+ㅏ=ㅘ (oh+ah = wah)

ㅗ+ㅐ=ㅙ (oh+ae=wae)

ㅜ+ㅓ=ㅝ (oo+eo=wuh)

ㅜ+ㅔ=ㅞ (oo+eh=weh)

ㅗ+ㅣ=ㅚ(oh+ ee=weh)

ㅜ+ㅣ=ㅟ (oo+ee=wee)

ㅡ+ㅣ=ㅢ (eu+ee=uee)