Korean/RWP/Lesson 6

Learn Korean (Introduction) Read, write, pronounce Korean: Course — Lesson 1 • Lesson 2 • Lesson 3 • Lesson 4 • Lesson 5 • Lesson 6 • Summary Orthography • Essential Pronunciation Rules • Advanced Pronunciation Rules Grammar • Conversation

Consonants learned so far:

Basic 예사소리	Letter (jamo)	ㄱ	ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄹ	ㅁ	ㅂ	ㅅ	ㅇ	ㅈ	ㅎ
	Romanization Pronunciation	g or k [g] or [k]	n [n]	d or t [d] or [t]	r or l [ɾ] or [l]	m [m]	b or p [b] or [p]	s [s]	- or ng silent or [ŋ]	j or ch [ʥ] or [ʨ]	h [h]
Aspirated 거센소리	Letter (jamo)	ㅋ		ㅌ			ㅍ			ㅊ
	Romanization Pronunciation	k [kʰ]		t [tʰ]			p [pʰ]			ch [ʨʰ]

Vowels learned so far:

Letter (jamo)	ㅏ	ㅑ	ㅓ	ㅕ	ㅗ	ㅛ	ㅜ	ㅠ	ㅡ	ㅣ
Romanization Pronunciation	a [a]	ya [ja]	eo [ʌ]	yeo [jʌ]	o [o]	yo [jo]	u [u]	yu [ju]	eu [ɯ]	i [i]
Letter (jamo)	ㅐ	ㅒ	ㅔ	ㅖ
Romanization Pronunciation	ae [ɛ]	yae [jɛ]	e [e]	ye [je]

Help complete it by reading Korean/Writing lessons plan or clicking "edit".

Welcome back! This is the sixth lesson of "Learn to read, write and pronounce Korean". This lesson covers the remaining jamo, all just variations on the letters you already learned.

The diphthong ㅘ (wa)

The vowel ㅘ is pronounced like the wa in swan (IPA: [ wɑ ]) and transcribed as wa.

Letter (jamo):	ㄱ	ㅏ	=>	과
	ㅗ
Romanization:	g o	a		gwa
Pronunciation:	[ gwa ]			[ gwa ]

Exercise

The following Korean words contain ㅘ (wa). Guess what the words mean. Click "Show" to check your answers.

Korean: 우루과이

English: Uruguay

Korean: 하와이

English: Hawaii

Korean: 괌

English: Guam

Korean: 오타와

English: Ottawa

Korean: 아이오와

English: Iowa

Korean: 보츠와나

English: Botswana

The diphthong ㅝ (weo)

The vowel ㅝ is pronounced like the wa in was (IPA: [ wʌ ]) and transcribed as weo.

Letter (jamo):	ㅁ	ㅓ	=>	뭐
	ㅜ
Romanization:	m u	eo		mweo
Pronunciation:	[ mwʌ ]			[ mwʌ ]

Exercise

The following Korean words contain ㅝ (weo). Guess what the words mean. Click "Show" to check your answers.

Korean: 남산 타워

English: Namsan Tower

Korean: 워싱턴

English: Washington

Korean: 샤워

English: Shower

Korean: 태권도

English: Taekwondo

Korean: 워크샵

English: Workshop

Korean: 원(₩; South Korean Currency)

English: Won

The diphthong ㅙ (wae)

The vowel ㅙ (wae) consists of the vowel ㅗ (o) and the vowel ㅐ (ae), so the vowel ㅙ (wae) is pronounced similarly like the wa in wagon (IPA: [ wæ ]) and transcribed as wae.

Letter (jamo):	ㄷ	ㅐ	=>	돼
	ㅗ
Romanization:	d o	ae		dwae
Pronunciation:	[ dwɛ ]			[ dwɛ ]

Exercise

The following Korean words contain ㅙ (wae). Guess what the words mean. Click "Show" to check your answers.

Korean: 왜건

English: Wagon

Korean: 왜관 (a city of South Korea)

English: Waegwan

Korean: 왜구 (Japanese pirates)

English: Wokou

The diphthong ㅞ (we)

The vowel ㅞ (we) consists of the vowel ㅜ (u) and the vowel ㅔ (e), so the vowel ㅞ (we) is pronounced the whe in when (IPA: [ we ]) and transcribed as we.

Letter (jamo):	ㄱ	ㅔ	=>	궤
	ㅜ
Romanization:	g u	e		gwe
Pronunciation:	[ gwe ]			[ gwe ]

Exercise

The following Korean words contain ㅞ (we). Guess what the words mean. Click "Show" to check your answers.

Korean: 퀘벡

English: Quebec

Korean: 노르웨이

English: Norway

Korean: 스웨덴

English: Sweden

Korean: 짐바브웨

English: Zimbabwe

The Tense Consonants

It is very important for Korean language to recognize the difference between basic sound, aspirated sound, and tense sound. It is not aspirated, but is pronounced strong and tense. Tense consonants are derived from their basic form by doubling the basic letter.

Letter (jamo):	ㄲ	ㄸ	ㅃ	ㅆ	ㅉ
Pronunciation:	[k͈]	[t͈]	[p͈]	[s͈]	[tɕ͈] ]

The difference of the consonants' three aspects can distinguish the meanings of words: For example, 달dal[tal] means 'the moon', 탈tal[tʰal] means 'a mask', and 딸ttal[t͈al] means 'a daughter'.

Exercise

The following Korean words contain the tensed consonants. Guess what the words mean.

Korean: 까르보나라

English: Carbonara

Korean: 깍두기

English: Kkakdugi

Korean: 떡

English: Tteok

Korean: 찌개

English: Jjigae

Korean: 안동찜닭

English: Andong jjimdak (ㄹ(ɾ/l) is silent)

Korean: 짜장면

English: Jjajangmyeon

Korean: 짬뽕

English: Jjamppong

The diphthong ㅚ (oe)

The vowel ㅚ is pronounced like the ö in the German word schön (IPA: [ ø ]) or the wea in weather (IPA: [ we ]), and transcribed as oe. Its appearance shows that it was originally a diphthong of ㅗ (o) and ㅣ (i) - but you can just consider that ㅣ acts as the umlaut mark (¨) of German language.

Letter (jamo):	ㅅ	ㅣ	=>	쇠
	ㅗ
Romanization:	s o	i		soe
Pronunciation:	[ swe ]			[ swe ] or [ sø ]

Exercise

The following Korean words contain ㅚ (oe). Guess what the words mean. Click "Show" to check your answers.

Korean: 괴테

English: Goethe

Korean: 쾰른

English: Köln

Korean: 된장

English: Doenjang

The diphthong ㅟ (wi)

The vowel ㅟ is pronounced like the whi in whiskey (IPA: [ wi ]) or the u in the French word chute (IPA: [ y ]), and transcribed as wi.

Letter (jamo):	ㄷ	ㅣ	=>	뒤
	ㅜ
Romanization:	d u	i		dwi
Pronunciation:	[ dwi ]			[ dwi ] or [ dy ]

Exercise

The following Korean words contain ㅟ (wi). Guess what the words mean. Click "Show" to check your answers, as usual.

Korean: 위스콘신

English: Wisconsin

Korean: 퀸

English: Queen

Korean: 윈도

English: window

Korean: 위스퍼

English: whisper

You can check your answers by clicking at "Show" above, as usual.

The diphthong ㅢ (ui)

The vowel ㅢ consists of the vowel ㅡ (eu) and the vowel ㅣ (i), so when you pronounce this vowel ㅢ, pronounce ㅡ and move your tongue to pronounce ㅣ softly (IPA: [ ɯi ]). The vowel ㅢ transcribed as ui because of efficiency. Sometimes this is pronounced simply [ e ].

Letter (jamo):	ㅇ	ㅣ	=>	의
	ㅡ
Romanization:	(none) eu	i		ui
Pronunciation:	[ ɯi ]			[ ɯi ]

Exercise

The following Korean words contain ㅢ (ui). Guess what the words mean. Click "Show" to check your answers.

Korean: 의성 (a county of South Korea)

English: eu-i-seong Uiseong

Guess how to read 의사 (which means a doctor in Korea).

eu-i-sa

How about this one: 정의 (which means justice in Korea)?

jeong-eu-i or simply jeong-i

End of lesson 6

Congratulations! You have now learned the whole Korean alphabet! If you'd like to review or brush up, visit the course summary.

Consonant jamo

Basic 예사소리	Letter (jamo)	ㄱ	ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄹ	ㅁ	ㅂ	ㅅ	ㅇ	ㅈ	ㅎ
	Romanization Pronunciation	g or k [g] or [k]	n [n]	d or t [d] or [t]	r or l [ɾ] or [l]	m [m]	b or p [b] or [p]	s [s]	- or ng silent or [ŋ]	j or ch [ʥ] or [ʨ]	h [h]
Aspirated 거센소리	Letter (jamo)	ㅋ		ㅌ			ㅍ			ㅊ
	Romanization Pronunciation	k [kʰ]		t [tʰ]			p [pʰ]			ch [ʨʰ]
Tense 된소리	Letter (jamo)	ㄲ		ㄸ			ㅃ	ㅆ		ㅉ
	Romanization Pronunciation	gg or kk [k͈]		dd or tt [t͈]			bb or pp [p͈]	ss [s͈]		jj [ʨ͈]

Vowel jamo

Letter (jamo)	ㅏ	ㅑ	ㅓ	ㅕ	ㅗ	ㅛ	ㅜ	ㅠ	ㅡ	ㅣ
Romanization Pronunciation	a [a]	ya [ja]	eo [ʌ]	yeo [jʌ]	o [o]	yo [jo]	u [u]	yu [ju]	eu [ɯ]	i [i]
Letter (jamo)	ㅐ	ㅒ	ㅔ	ㅖ	ㅚ		ㅟ		ㅢ
Romanization Pronunciation	ae [ɛ]	yae [jɛ]	e [e]	ye [je]	oe [wø]		wi [wi]		ui [ɰi]
Letter (jamo)	ㅘ		ㅝ
Romanization Pronunciation	wa [wa]		wo [wʌ]
Letter (jamo)	ㅙ		ㅞ
Romanization Pronunciation	wae [wɛ]		we [we]

Learn Korean (Introduction) Read, write, pronounce Korean: Course — Lesson 1 • Lesson 2 • Lesson 3 • Lesson 4 • Lesson 5 • Lesson 6 • Summary Orthography • Essential Pronunciation Rules • Advanced Pronunciation Rules Grammar • Conversation