Korean/RWP/Lesson 3

Welcome back! This is the third lesson of "Learn to read, write and pronounce Korean". In the previous two lessons, you already learned a total of 8 letters.

In this lesson, you will learn 4 additional basic letters and many new Korean words. You will even use your knowledge to write some Korean words, rather than just reading them.

The vowel ㅗ (o)
The first new letter is the vowel ㅗ (o):

The vowel ㅗ (o) is pronounced like the ow in the American English pronunciation of row or the a in the Australian English pronunciation of ball (IPA: [o]). Since this vowel is much wider than it is tall (unlike the vowels you have learned so far), it would be difficult to fit it beside a consonant in a little square box. Instead, it is written below the initial consonant:

Even when ㅗ (o) is already below the consonant, it is still possible to add another consonant below to make the syllable end in a consonant:

Exercise
Try to read the following Korean words that contain the letter ㅗ (o). Click "▼" to check your answers, as usual.

Final ㅇ (ieung)
The consonant ㅇ (ieung) can appear at the end of a syllable. When ㅇ (ieung) comes at the beginning of a syllable, it is just a placeholder enabling the syllable to start with a vowel, but when it comes at the end of a syllable, it is pronounced like the ng in ring and is transliterated as ng.

Exercise
Practise reading these words now:

The consonant ㄷ (digeut)
Time to learn the consonant ㄷ (digeut):

The letter ㄷ (digeut) is pronounced similar to the t in stop or strain. It is not aspirated, so it does not sound like the t in try or today. Many English speakers liken it more to the d sound. It is transliterated as d or t.

Exercise
Practice reading by guessing the meaning of the following Korean words:

Check your answers by clicking "▼", as usual.

The consonant ㅅ (siot)
Meet ㅅ (siot):

The letter ㅅ (siot) is usually pronounced like the s in sand and is transliterated as s. When the following vowel is ㅣ (i), though, ㅅ sounds a little different because the body of the tongue is raised toward the palate to make the [i] sound. So, the syllable 소 (IPA: [so]) sounds like the English word "so", but the syllable 시 (IPA: [ɕi]) is somewhere between the English "see" and "she".

Exercise
Practise reading:

The vowel ᅳ (eu)
The last letter for this lesson is ᅳ (eu):

The vowel ᅳ (eu) looks just like an ordinary horizontal line. It is much wider than tall, so it is also written below the preceding consonant rather than next to it. Its pronunciation is a bit strange for English speakers, somewhat like the oo of boot but without rounding the lips. In words of foreign origin, it is often an in-between neutral vowel sound used to make consonant clusters more pronounceable for the Koreans. In such words (and otherwise when unstressed), it often is pronounced similar to the u of the Southern American English pronunciation of nut, and the guttural "e" sound in French.

Exercise
Words for practise:

Exercise: Writing practice
Since you now can read Korean words with these jamo, try some writing practice:

End of lesson 3
If you learned the letters in this lesson, you are ready to go on to lesson 4, where you will learn the rest of the simple letters and continue practising your writing skills.