Korean/RWP/Lesson 2

Welcome back! This is the second lesson of "Learn to read, write and pronounce Korean".

In the last lesson, you already learned four letters: ㅂ (bieup), ㅏ (a), ㄴ (nieun) and ㅇ (ieung). In this lesson, you will learn four new letters. Combined with the four you already know, they will open up quite a few Korean words to you.

The consonant ㅁ (mieum)
The first new consonant to learn is ㅁ (mieum):

ㅁ (mieum) is pronounced just like a regular English m. Be careful not to confuse it with 'ㅇ', which doesn't have corners.

Exercise
Try to read the following Korean words that contain the letter ㅁ (mieum). Click "Show" to check your answers, as usual.

The vowel ㅣ (i)
The first new vowel to learn is ㅣ (i):

The vowel ㅣ (i) looks much like the English letter I and is pronounced like the i in "machine", so it's easy to remember. It also looks similar to the Korean letter ㅏ (a), except that the dash to the right is missing. (Note: all Korean vowels are based on long horizontal or vertical lines, most with short dashes attached to them.)

Exercise
Try to read the following Korean words that contain the letter ㅣ (i). Click "Show" to check your answers, as usual.

The consonant ㄹ (rieul)
The next consonant, ㄹ (rieul), has two different sounds:

ㄹ (rieul) is pronounced like the l in let or like the r in the Spanish word árbol, and is transliterated as r or l.

Exercise
Each of these words has ㄹ (rieul). Translate each word into English. Click "Show" to check your answers, as usual.

The consonant ㄱ (giyeok)
Finally, the consonant ㄱ (giyeok) will unlock lots of words to you:

ㄱ (giyeok) is pronounced like the k in sky or the c in scrape. It is not aspirated, so it does not sound like the c in cry or vacation. Many English speakers liken it more to the g sound. It is transliterated as g or k. Be careful not to confuse it with ㄴ (nieun). When ㄱ (giyeok) is combined with a vowel such as ㅏ (a) or ㅣ (i), it changes shape slightly:

Exercise
Translate these words with ㄱ (giyeok) into English. Click "Show" to check your answers, as usual.

End of lesson 2
Very good! You have now learned 8 Korean letters already and the rest won't be difficult either. Feel free to continue with the next lesson.