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the Korean alphabet : 한글

# Posted: 15 Nov 2006 11:31 KST - Edited by: _joseph_
... Re-Sideview ...

Korean Vowels and Consonants 한글의 자모
Hangeul 한글, the Korean alphabet consists of forty letters. Listen to them here and practice first, then come back and read this.
then, click here to practic all the hangul with learning basic vocabulary
Here is also another practice site which is interactive and has sound.
then, come back here and read the academic stuff.

Twenty-one of these represent vowels (including thirteen diphthongs), and nineteen represent consonants. Twenty-four are basic, while the others are compounds of the basic letters.

I love the fact that it doesn’t treat me like an absolute idiot that couldn’t spend the hour it took to learn 한글, so there’s not a bit of romanization (thank GOD~!!).

source: Let"s Learn Korean blogs

So, is learning hangul the korean writing system really that easy?

To answer, let"s first look at how it looks (the korean names which you don"t need to know for them are also listed):

ㄱ(기 역)	ㄴ(니 은)	ㄷ(디 귿)	ㄹ(리 을)	ㅁ(미음)
ㅂ(비 읍)	ㅅ(시 옷)	ㅇ(이 응)	ㅈ(지 읒)	ㅊ(치 읓)
ㅋ(키 읔)	ㅌ(티 읕)	ㅍ(피 읖)	ㅎ(히 읗)
ㅏ(아)	ㅑ(야)	ㅓ(어)	ㅕ(여)	ㅗ(오)
ㅛ(요)	ㅜ(우)	ㅠ(유)	ㅡ(으)	ㅣ(이 )

The names for 된소리 which means a doubling of the consonants are as follows:

ㄲ(쌍기역) ㄸ(쌍디귿) ㅃ(쌍비읍) ㅆ(쌍시옷) ㅉ(쌍지읒)

breakdown into vowels and consonants
There are 21 Vowels in korean that"s called 모음(홀소리)
ㅏ ㅓ ㅗ ㅜ ㅡ ㅣ ㅐ ㅔ
ㅑ ㅕ ㅛ ㅠ ㅒ ㅖ
ㅘ ㅙ ㅝ ㅞ ㅚ ㅟ ㅢ

Here is a flash file for practicing these vowels and their pronunciations

there are 19 Consonants. 닿소리 is what they call their consonants. They are divided into 3 kinds:
1) The basic ones are called 예사소리
ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅎ

2) Then there are ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ are called 거센소리 (thanks mint!)
ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ
When you make those sounds you exhale or puff like when you make the P sound in English.

3) and the combination ones are called 된소리
ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ

Now, you have to practice. The best site I know of for hangul learning is right here.

Here is a pronunciation guide to adjoining consonants

Here is a writing guide like stroke direction that kind of stuff.

Here is a pronunciation guide with sound clips and even videos which show the lip positions when you go and make the sounds

Don"t worry, as a foreigner, the pronunciation of those will take you a lifetime. some people say they can hear the difference, but many Korean people themselves can"t so don"t lose any sleep!

So, my conclusion, is that the alphabet is easy. It"s hard to pronounce correctly. However, it"s not hard to remember which is the p sound and which is the d sound and which vowel is A sound and which is i sound generally pretty easily. However, you have to practice reading with a korean to learn the pronunciation, and I could never imagine a foreigner saying Korean pronunciation is easy

mint Posts: 269 native korean # Posted: 14 Jan 2007 22:06 KST ... Re-Sideview ... ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ are called 거센소리. -->【음성 a voice】 파열음(an explosive) They are not 예사소리.
Please point out my mistakes in English anytime. Thank you.

mint Posts: 269 native korean # Posted: 21 Jan 2007 13:02 KST ... Re-Sideview ... Consonants are 닿소리, 자음.
Please point out my mistakes in English anytime. Thank you.

polak Posts: 2 native english # Posted: 25 Feb 2008 02:18 KST ... Re-Sideview ... 한글은 쉽다 빨리 공부했다.
안녕하세요! 한국어를 열심히 공부 있어요

Joseph, copying from:

남자의여자 by 이원호

Posts: 302
native korean

# Posted: 28 Feb 2008 02:56 KST - Edited by: Joseph, copying from:
남자의여자 by 이원호
... Re-Sideview ...

정말이에요. 제가 말한대로 어려운 부분이 일기과 쓰기가 말고 발음이에요. 발음, 발음, 발음. 그하고 듣기도 힘들어요. 한글 쓰는데조차 힘든다고 하신다면 한국말을 배우지 마세요. survival Korean 쫌 배우면 되니까..... 저는 그렇게 생각해 왔는데, 그찌않아요?

이원호 신작 장편소설

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