Learn Basic Korean Alphabet

Learn Basic Korean Alphabet

So, you want to learn the Korean alphabet. But you step back, thinking that it is one of the hardest languages to learn. It has characters that look like a bunch of boxes and circles that confuse you.

Fear not! You can learn this 500-year-old alphabet system in less than a day. And once you start, you’ll be on a roll.

Read

This article will teach you the unique history of the Korean alphabet. It will show you how to get started with pronouncing Korean vowels and consonants. You will even make some words.

Free Korean Video Courses: Learn Korean Alphabet (hangul), How To Read Korean, Basic Korean Course, Topik Test Prep

(hangul), 한글, dates back to 1443 CE, when King Sejong the Great devised the writing system. He did so, so that the ordinary people of Korea, then called Joseon, could have a way of reading and writing.

, only educated nobles were taught reading and writing using Chinese characters. King Sejong documented the new Korean alphabet in the manuscript

Is also one of the most logical alphabets on the planet. The way the consonants mimic movements of the tongue when making the sound is just one example of how much thought was put behind the creation of this alphabet.

Learn Korean 한국어: Alphabet Hangul (한글)

There are only 24 letters in the Korean alphabet: 14 consonants and 10 vowels. The consonants and vowels are combined together to sound out words, just like they are in English.

Pro tip: Throughout the article, you’ll see some Korean words. Try writing them down to practice the strokes. Just like when writing letters in English, start from the top-left to the bottom-right.

There are 10 Korean vowels. Some exist in English; some are a bit different. When practicing your Korean pronunciation, try enunciating, or exaggerating your mouth movements. This will make the sounds to come out clearer.

So Young's Learn Basic Korean

When pronouncing the plain vowel, pair it with the consonant ㅇ. It acts as a silent filler when used in front of vowels.

Additionally to the 10 basic vowels, there are 11 complex vowels you can create by combining two basic vowels. It’s like adding o and u to make the “ow” sound. Here is a chart of how complex Korean vowels are formed and how to pronounce them.

You might notice that 애 and 에 are represented in different roman alphabet letters. Both sound like “eh” and 왜, 웨, 외 are also the same sound of “we”!

Leveram Korean Alphabet Chart Korean Language Poster Hangul Alphabet And Basic Word Learning Wall Chart About Alphabet Body Animal Number Korean Posters For Beginners Adult And Kids Set Of 5: Lee Byeong

In the past, it was important to differentiate the sounds of these vowels. In modern Korean, we pronounce them in the same way. Just remember to use the correct vowel when writing Korean, because gae개 means “dog” while ge 게 means “crab”!

We’ll get to learning more complicated structures another time. At this stage, you should know that once you start learning the alphabet, you’ll be able to start spelling and reading right after!

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How Will I Write A, B, C To Z In The Korean Language?

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Learning

When learning the Korean language, one of the first steps is to learn the Korean alphabet. 한글 (Hangul, also spelled Hangeul) is one of the youngest alphabets in the world and is widely-respected by linguists for its logical construction.

Hangul consists of 24 letters, 10 vowels and 14 consonants, and is relatively simple to learn. Unlike Chinese and Japanese characters that are logographic, Hangul can be sounded out phonetically. This makes reading and writing a lot easier!

How To Learn The Korean Alphabet: Hangul Explained Simply

Hangul (meaning ‘Great Script’) was developed by King Sejong the Great, the fourth king of the Joseon period, in 1443. King Sejong wanted to establish an independent cultural identity for Korea through a unique writing system. With the help of a group of scholars, he created a simple alphabet of 28 letters (4 of which have since become obsolete) and proclaimed the Hunmin Jeong-eum (훈민정음, “the correct sounds for the instruction of the people”) in 1446.

Before the introduction of Hangul, the dominant writing system in Korea was Hanja (漢字; 한자) which was adapted from Chinese characters. Hanja was mostly used by the ruling class and bureaucrats, which meant that literacy was out of reach for many ordinary Korean citizens.

King Sejong’s invention of a logical, easy-to-master alphabet meant that more people could learn to read and write and the spread of information became much easier.

Read The Korean Alphabet: Hangeul Pronunciation

This did not go down well with some bearded old men who saw Hanja as the only legitimate writing system. As you can imagine, keeping the majority of people illiterate was a great way to maintain the status quo.

Today, Hangul is the official writing system of both South and North Korea (known as Chosŏn’gŭl there), although some language drift has occurred due to the long separation between the two countries. South Korea celebrates Hangul Day as a national holiday on October 9th. 

Hangul

Unlike English, where you write from left to right in a straight line, Hangul is written in syllabic blocks. This may sound complicated, but it is actually very logical.

Korean Alphabet In A Picture: Learn Korean Alphabet (hangul) Super Fast By Min Wei Wang

Hangul is made up of vertical and horizontal vowels. Vertical vowels are placed to the right of the consonant, while horizontal vowels are placed below the consonant.

Hangul characters do not always only consist of one vowel and one consonant. There are various different ways to combine consonants and vowels to form words. Let’s take a look at a few examples:

The final consonant in the above examples are called ‘batchim’ (받침). You’ll notice from the examples on the right hand side, that there is also a double final consonant, called a ‘gyeobbatchim’ (겹받침).

Learning Korean 2. How To Read Hangeul (korean Alphabet) Vowels

There are many ways to combine consonants and vowels, but don’t worry about it for now. You will learn it as you go along.

While it is easy to set Korean as a language preference on your computer from your settings (find a useful link at the end of this section), the tricky part is getting to grips with the keyboard layout. Unless you bought your machine in Korea, your keyboard won’t have the Korean characters written on it.  

You can memorize the keyboard layout, but if you need a bit of guidance, you can make your own stickers and paste them on your keyboard. Or you can buy stickers or a keyboard cover like the ones below.

Learn

Free Korean Alphabet Worksheets (pdf)

90 Day Korean has an in-depth article on how to install the Korean keyboard and how to learn the layout effectively. Check it out here .

Luckily, Hangul is very easy to learn because the shape of the characters supposedly correspond to the shape your mouth makes when producing the sounds. Some people claim that it is possible to learn the Korean alphabet in 2 hours or even 15 minutes. I’ll admit that it took me far longer than this, but I have not been a very dedicated student because Mandarin Chinese is still my main focus.

This textbook offers a solid introduction to Hangul before moving on to some basic grammar and vocabulary. I have the Kindle version, but now wish I had a physical copy to complete the exercises properly.

The Korean Alphabet

I bought this video course on Udemy. It consists of 100 video lessons, including ‘Hana Hana Hangul’, a step-by step introduction to Hangul. This course was very reasonably priced and the video lessons are short, making it easy to schedule bite-size learning sessions.

Talk to me in Korean offers a wide range of textbooks, courses and resources. Become a Hangeul Master focuses on learning to read and write Korean characters. This book also includes a very useful section on Korean handwriting tips and different handwriting examples.

It can be a bit tricky to get to grips with these rules, but you will learn them naturally as you encounter more words and understand how to pronounce them.

Korean Alphabet Book: Quick & Easy Hangul Learn The Basics Of The Korean Alphabet (learn Korean Language, Band 2)

The Hana Hana Hangul course has a very thorough explanation of these rules and you can also find an overview here .

Korean

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