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Alphabet START LESSON Bronze League 2D 22H 32M

Welcome to the Korean for English

speakers course!

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Hangeul
The Korean script, Hangeul, may seem
2 V vineet 350 XP
intimidating, but don't worry; it's actually
a lot like the alphabet we use in English, a
small set of characters representing the 3 L Lilibeth 349 XP
sounds of the language. Of course, it's not
perfect, but in general it matches spoken
Korean better than English does. 4 沈禾桃 277 XP

Syllable Blocks
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Unlike English, written Korean is
organized into syllable blocks. Each block Daily Goal
represents a single syllable and consists
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of two to four letters. The Korean word for
‘hello,’ 안녕하세요, is composed of 12
letters organized into five syllable blocks. 160
Annyeonghaseyo!
120
Both letters and syllable blocks are
80
written from left to right and from top to
bottom. 40

0
Basic Vowels Sa Su M Tu W Th F

We begin with the six basic vowels of

Korean: ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ, and ㅣ. Their
names are 아, 어, 오, 우, 으, and 이,
respectively, where the letter ㅇ, or ieung, Next Achievement VIEW ALL

remains silent, acting as a place holder. In

the same way, you may just add an ㅇ to Complete 5 lessons with no
get the name of any other vowel. Note mistakes
that ‘ㅏ,’ ‘ㅓ,’ and ‘ㅣ’ are written to the LEVEL 2 4/5
side of the initial consonant while ‘ㅗ,’ ‘ㅜ,’
and ‘ㅡ’ are written beneath the initial
consonant.

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ㅏ a /a/ Bach
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ㅓ eo /ʌ/ gut

ㅣ i /i/ bee FIND FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK

ㅜ u /u/ boo
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ㅗ o /o/ go

ㅡ eu /ɯ/ ugh

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‘어’ is a short ‘o’ sound, difficult for many
American English speakers, similar to the
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‘u’ ‘cup’ or to the o in yogurt for British
speakers.

‘으’ is also difficult, being rare in English,

although it is a short ‘u’ something close
to the uh in uh-oh.

Iotized Vowels
By adding an additional dash we get a
y-sound.

Romaniza Pronuncia
한글
tion tion

ㅑ ya /ja/

ㅕ yeo /jʌ/

ㅠ yu /ju/

ㅛ yo /jo/

Diphthongs
Korean has two way of forming
diphthongs. The first is to add an ㅣ to the
base vowel.

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한글
tion tion

ㅐ ae /ɛ/ bed

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ㅔ e /e/ bed

ㅢ ui /ɰi/ we

ㅒ yae /jɛ/

ㅖ ye /je/

Due to recent sound changes, 애(얘) and

에(예) are pronounced the same in most
Korean dialects.

의 is usually pronounced something like

"we" on its own.

The second set of diphthongs is formed by

adding an ㅗ or an ㅜ.

Romaniza Pronuncia
한글
tion tion

ㅘ wa /wa/

ㅙ wae /wɛ/

ㅚ oe /ø/ or
/we/

ㅝ wo /wʌ/

ㅞ we /we/

ㅟ wi /wi/

Due to sound changes, 왜, 외, and 웨

sound the same in most modern Korean
dialects.

NOTE: You will sometimes be asked to

translate a word or two here. Hover over
the words and you will see their
translations.

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