Unit 0 (Learning How to Read Korean) Lesson 1: Korean Word Structure & Basic Korean Letters

Korean Word Structure & Basic Korean Letters

_Suga_Is_ Tired_

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​In this lesson, I will provide the romanatized equivalents to the Korean Alphabet. However, once you learn how to read Korean, you should abandon the romanizations. In the future, instead of studying like this:

​학교 (hak-kyo) = school

​study like this:

​학교 = school

​Basic Korean Consonants

​ㄱ= k/g

​ㄴ= n

ㄷ= d

ㄹ=r/l

ㅁ= m

ㅂ= b/p

ㅅ= s

ㅈ= j

ㅎ= h

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​Some consonants have two different ways of romanitizing them, but not even Korean speaker would be able to tell you the difference between the two sounds, so don't worry about it. For example:

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​ㄱ sounds like k or g, but it sounds the same either way.

​Before moving on, you should memorise these basic consonants.

​Basic Korean Vowels

ㅣ = i

ㅏ = a

ㅓ = eo (Romanized as “eo” but it sounds closer to “uh” in English)

ㅡ = eu

ㅜ = u

ㅗ = o

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​Before moving on, you should memorise these basic vowels.

​​Korean is written into "blocks" that make up one syllable. One block always has EXACTLY onse syllable. The block is always drawn in one of the following ways:

1

​2

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​or

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​1

​2

​3

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or

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12

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​or

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​12

​ 3

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​Number '2' is ALWAYS a vowel.

​Numbers '1' and '3' are ALWAYS consonants.

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​Blocks that contain horizontally drawn consonants are drawn in one of the following ways:

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​1

​2

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​or

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​1

​2

​3

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​Blocks that contain a vertically drawn consonant are drawn in one of the following ways:

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​12

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​or

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​12

​ 3

​Putting letters together to make a syllable

​Step 1: Determine if the vowel is vertical or horizontal.

​Step 2: Determine if the syllable ends with a consonant.

​Step 3: Place the letters accordingly.

​Lets practice a few before we finsish.

ㄱ = k

ㅏ = a

ㄴ = n

ㅏ is vertically aligned, so if is vertically aligned, so if we make a syllable we would write: 간 (kan)

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​ㅂ = b

ㅓ = eo

ㅂ = b

ㅓ is vertically aligned, so if we make a syllable we would write: 법 (beob)

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ㅈ = j

ㅜ = u

ㅜ is horizontally aligned, so if we make a syllable we would write: 주 (ju)​

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ㅎ = h

ㅗ = o

ㅗ is horizontally aligned, so if we make a syllable we would write: 호 (ho)​

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​That's it! At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Recognise the vowels and consonants that were taught in this lesson.

2. Be able to make syllables by putting together formations of vowels and consonants.