Confidential

The basic letters: Consonants

First, let’s learn the 5 basic consonants. LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING!!

ㄱㄴㅁㅅㅇ

Hangeul Romanization

[g]

[n]

[m]

[s]

[no sound]

your tongue go flat, ㄱ modeled the shape of flat tongue

the tip of your tongue touches the upper gum ridge slightly. ㄴmodeled the shape of the tongue touches the upper gum ridge

your upper and lower lips meet, ㅁ modeled the outline of the lips in contact with each other

your upper and lower teeth get closer and blow the wind between them, ㅅ modeled the shape of the teeth met

with vowels, your throat wide open. ㅇ modeled the shape of wide open throat

When you make the sound of this letter : model

1. These 5 basic consonants are based on the concept of five elements of yin yang five elements philosophy. (Google it)

2. These 5 basic consonants modeled the shape of human tongue, lips and throat when making the sound. Therefore, it is EASY to memorize.

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Confidential

The basic letters: Consonants

Now Let’s learn all the other consonants LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING!!

1. The rest of the consonants are derived from the 5 basic consonants.2. When you make the sound of the derived consonants, your tongue, lips or throat will

make the same shapes as do when making the sound of its origin consonant.3. You can write the derived consonants adding just one to three strokes to the basic

consonant.

ㄱㄴㅁㅅㅇ

[g]

[n]

[m]

[s]

[no sound]

ㅋㄷㅂㅈㅎ

[k]

[d]

[b]

[j]

[h]

ㅌㅍㅊ

[t]

[p]

[ch]

ㄹ [r/l]half way between R and L

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Confidential

The basic letters: Vowels

ㅏㅓㅗㅜㅡㅣ

Hangeul Romanization

[a]

[eo]

[o]

[u]

[eu]

When you make “a” sound, do you feel like it’s going forward or backward? Yes, forward.

When you make “eo” sound, do you feel like it’s going forward or backward? Yes, backward.

When you make “o” sound, do you feel like it’s going up or down? Yes, up.

When you make “u” sound, do you feel like it’s going up or down? Yes, down.

When you make “eu” sound, do you feel like it’s horizontal or vertical? Yes, horizontal.

How you feel :

1. Vowels in Hangeul are very simple. There are 10 basic vowels. Let’s start with the simplest ones first.

2. Basic Hangeul vowels were made based on “yin and yang” philosophy. Therefore, how you feel when you see the shape of the vowels is very important.

[i] When you make “i” sound, do you feel like it’s horizontal or vertical? Yes, vertical.

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Confidential

The basic letters: VowelsLet’s learn 4 iotized vowels. I don’t even know what “iotized” means.Let’s just say there are 4 more basic vowels in Hangeul.

ㅏㅓㅗㅜㅡㅣ

[a]

[eo]

[o]

[u]

[eu]

[i]

ㅑㅕㅛㅠ

[ya]

[yeo]

[yo]

[yu]

■ study tips1. ㅑ, ㅕ, ㅛ, ㅠ sound like 4 basic

vowels with “y” put in front of them.

2. We say ㅑ sounds like putting “y” in front of ㅏ, because we explain it in English. Let me put it this way. [a] and [ya] actually are in the same category in term of the sound. That’s why those have only one stroke difference. So, that one stoke adds [y] sound.

Now, we’ve done studying 10 vowels in Korean

alphabet.

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6 basic vowel 4 more