Before going there make sure you understood everything introduced previously, you have to memorize them well because 한글 is the foundation for your whole Korean learning process and pronunciation is really important if you want to be understood by the natives!
Compound vowels
Now, the first thing that we are going to do in this lesson is to introduce you to more vowels:
- 에 (e)
- 애 (ae)
Now you might get confused because these two characters are written differently and romanized differently, but they sound quite similar. Here is the thing: they are similar.
There is indeed a very slight difference but, in everyday life, natives do not care about the distinction of these characters.
However, be careful! In terms of writing, they are not interchangeable.
A simple Korean word : 무지개 (rainbow) can not be written 무지게.
These vowels also have their “y” version:
- 예 (ye)
- 얘 (yae)
Let's go a bit further with what you can do with 한글 and introduce you to syllables/characters with 3 elements. Some of them are these “compound vowels” give you an additional bunch of sounds.
- 와 (wa)
- 외 (oe)
- 왜 (wae)
- 워 (weo)
- 위 (wi)
- 웨 (we)
- 의 (eui)
Ok now that you got it, let's try to combine all that with consonants. There is not much to explain here, you replace ㅇ with your consonant and it works, so let's just see that with actual words:
- 사과Apple
- 뇌Brain
- 의사Doctor
- 왜?Why?
- 뭐?What?
- 화Anger
The Pronunciation Rule of ㅇ
So previously, you understood how ㅇ when used before a vowel would just be muted, you'll now see how there's more to this consonant, because when put at the end of the character it gives another sound “ng” as in the famous word:
- 사랑love
It is finally the last “type of sound” you'll have to know before forming everything when writing Korean words. It works with every vowel there is no exception here:
- 앙 (ang)
- 엉 (eong)
- 용 (yong)
- 엥 (eng)
- 응 (eung)
With this, you can form new words to add to your vocabulary list:
- 호랑이Tiger
- 강River
- 방Room
- 링Ring
- 영화Movie
- 경기Game, Match
- 장Chapter or Market
- 빵Bread
- 양Sheep
- 중Middle
- 공Ball
- 장마Rainy season
- 강아지Puppy
- 용Dragon
Now, once again, make sure that you got all this right until now and then when you're ready let's quickly move to build more complex characters, you're almost done dealing with 한글!