Learning Hangeul

Here are my notes on how to read and write Hangeul (한글). I am following the Revised Romanisation of Korean (the official Korean language romanisation system in South Korea introduced in July 2000) in romanising Korean (South) letters and words. Pronunciations are given using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

I highly recommend the Korean Wiki Project for learning to read and write Hangeul.

Contents

Introduction
Vowels

Simple Vowels
Complex Vowels with y Sound
Complex Vowels with w Sound and ui
Summary

Consonants
Syllable Blocks
Pronunciation Rules
Use Korean Dictionaries
External Links

Introduction

Modern Korean uses Hangeul (한글) in its writing system.

The individual consonant and vowel letters of Hangeul are combined into square syllable blocks to spell Korean words and sentences, with each letter represents a distinct sound.

A syllable block has one initial consonant followed by one vowel, and optional final consonant. The final consonant (받침 patchim) position may contain one or two consonants.

There are in total of 51 letters in Hangeul

eight simple vowels, 13 complex vowels
14 basic consonants, five double consonants
11 two-lettered combined consonants which only appear in the final consonant position of a syllable block

The initial consonants and their pronunciations are shown below:

Initial Consonants
Plain	ㄱ	ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄹ	ㅁ	ㅂ	ㅅ	ㅇ	ㅈ	ㅎ
Plain	/k/, /g/	/n/	/t/, /d/	/r/, /l/	/m/	/p/, /b/	/s/	-	/t͡ɕ/, /d͡ʑ/	/h/
Aspirated	ㅋ		ㅌ			ㅍ			ㅊ
Aspirated	/k/		/t/			/p/			/t͡ɕ/
Tense	ㄲ		ㄸ			ㅃ	ㅆ		ㅉ
Tense	/g/		/d/			/b/	/s/		/d͡ʑ/

Note that some consonants have two different pronunciations (e.g. ㄱ can be pronounced as /k/ or /g/ depending on its position in a word). Some consonants are aspirated and some are tense. See Consonants for more details.

The simple vowels and complex vowels are shown below:

Simple Vowels			Complex Bright Vowels					Complex Dark Vowels
Bright	Dark	Neutral		ㅗ	ㅏ	ㅣ	ㅐ		ㅜ	ㅓ	ㅣ	ㅔ
ㅏ	ㅓ	ㅣ	ㅏ		ㅑ		ㅒ	ㅓ		ㅕ		ㅖ
ㅗ	ㅜ	ㅡ	ㅗ	ㅛ	ㅘ	ㅚ	ㅙ	ㅜ	ㅠ	ㅝ	ㅟ	ㅞ
Compound			Neutral Combination
ㅐ	ㅔ		ㅡ			ㅢ

See Vowels for the pronunciations and other details.

For the final consonants, many of them are the same as the initial consonants, but there are only seven possible pronunciations, i.e. the sounds of the plain consonants:- ㄱ, ㄴ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㄹ, ㄷ and ㅇ.

Final Consonants
/k/	ㄱ	ㅋ	ㄲ	ㄳ	ㄺ
/n/	ㄴ	ㄵ	ㄶ
/m/	ㅁ	ㄻ
/p/	ㅂ	ㅍ	ㅄ	ㄿ	ㄼ*
/l/	ㄹ	ㄽ	ㄾ	ㅀ	ㄼ*
/t/	ㄷ	ㅌ	ㅅ	ㅆ	ㅈ	ㅊ	ㅎ
/ng/	ㅇ

In the case of the 11 two–letter combined consonants, determine the pronunciation by using the following sound order:- k > n > m > p > l > t > ng; the only exception isㄼwhich can be pronounced as either /p/ or /l/.

Note: The pronunciation for the above initial and final consonants applies primarily to a single syllable. For certain consonants, the pronunciation changes depending on what is proceeding or following it. See Pronunciation Rules for more details.

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Vowels

There are eight simple vowels and 13 complex vowels in Hangeul.

Simple Vowels

Hangeul has six simple letters and two compound letters to represent eight simple vowel sounds.

Vowels	Romanisation	IPA	British English Sound	Notes on Pronunciation	Listen
ㅏ	a	/a/	father, spa	shorter than this /a/ sound	ㅏ
ㅓ	eo	/ʌ/	young, mud	Personally I think the sound is somewhere between /ʌ/ and /o/ sound forㅗ below. Something like /ɒ/ as in "cot" , "pot" and "hot" but try to keep your mouth unrounded or loosely rounded so it doesn't turn into the rounded ㅗ sound	ㅓ
ㅗ	o	/o/	lock, horse	shorter than this /o/ sound	ㅗ
ㅜ	u	/u/	flute, boot	shorter than this /u/ sound	ㅜ
ㅡ	eu	/ɯ/	good, put	There is no exact sound in English for this vowel. The closet is the /ʊ/ sound as in “good” and “put” but shorter. To me it sounds similar to ‘e’ in the Chinese pin-yin.	ㅡ
ㅣ	i	/i/	see, feet	shorter than this /i/	ㅣ
ㅐ	ae	/ɛ/	dress	longer sound thanㅔ below	ㅐ
ㅔ	e	/e/	met		ㅔ

Note: The Yahoo Media Player currently does not work with Chrome or IE, but works with other browsers.

Notes

In modern Korea, people no longer make the distinction between the two compound vowelsㅐ and ㅔ in their speech anymore, they are both pronounced as /e/. However, the difference is maintained in writing, as in 게 “crab” and 개 “dog”.

Complex Vowels with y Sound

One additional short stoke make six of the above simple vowels into complex vowels with 'y' sound.

Vowels	Romanisation	IPA	British English Sound	Notes on Pronunciation	Listen
ㅑ	ya	/ja/	yard	Pronounced with a 'y' sound in front of ㅏ	ㅑ
ㅕ	yeo	/jʌ/	yonder, young	Pronounced with a 'y' sound in front of ㅓ	ㅕ
ㅛ	yo	/jo/	yogurt	Pronounced with a 'y' sound in front of ㅗ	ㅛ
ㅠ	yu	/ju/	you	Pronounced with a 'y' sound in front of ㅜ	ㅠ
ㅒ	yae	/jɛ/	yes, yea	Pronounced with a 'y' sound in front of ㅐ. Longer sound than ㅖ.	ㅒ
ㅖ	ye	/je/	yet	Pronounced with a 'y' sound in front of ㅔ	ㅖ

Note: The Yahoo Media Player currently does not work with Chrome or IE, but works with other browsers.

Notes

ㅒ and ㅖ are no longer distinguished in casual speech, both being pronounced as /je/, but is retained in writing as well as extremely careful pronunciation.

Complex Vowels with w Sound and ui

Simple vowels are combined to form complex vowels beginning with the sound 'w' and the vowel 'ui'. The combining is based on the so-called vowel harmony principal in Korean, which does not permit a bright vowel (ㅏ and ㅗ) to be combined with a dark vowel (ㅓ and ㅜ) within a syllable, but either can be combined with the neutral vowel ㅣ.

Vowels	Romanisation	IPA	British English Sound	Notes on Pronunciation	Listen
ㅘ	wa	/wa/	wander	Pronounce ㅗ andㅏtogether quickly with a 'w' sound in front.	ㅘ
ㅙ	wae	/wɛ/	wax	Pronounce ㅗ and ㅐ together quickly with a 'w' sound in front.	ㅙ
ㅚ	oe	/we/	no entry or wet	Can be pronounced as two separate syllables, the first part is a lot shorter than when it is pronounced as a single vowel, so it is almost sound like a 'w' in front. Thus, usually it is pronounced the same as ㅞ (/we/) below.	ㅚ
ㅝ	wo	/wʌ/	wonder	Pronounce ㅜ and ㅓ together quickly with a 'w' sound in front.	ㅝ
ㅞ	we	/we/	wet	Pronounce ㅜ and ㅔtogether quickly with a 'w' sound in front. It does not appear much.	ㅞ
ㅟ	wi	/wi/	we	Pronounce ㅜ and ㅣtogether quickly with a 'w' sound in front.	ㅟ
ㅢ	ui	/ɯi/	chop suey	Unlike the other complex vowels, this one is actually pronounced as two separate syllables with the first part briefer than when it is pronounced as an independent single vowel. See notes below for pronunciation details.	ㅢ

Note: The Yahoo Media Player currently does not work with Chrome or IE, but works with other browsers.

Notes

ㅙ, ㅚ and ㅞ are now pronounced identically as /we/, although the distinction is maintained in writing and extremely careful pronunciation.
ㅢ is unstable and is pronounced as ui (in word initial position not proceded by a consonant) and i (in non-initial position and after a consonant in initial position). For example, 흰 "white" is pronounced as hin and not as huin as ㅢ is proceded by a consonant ㅎ .
ㅢ in the possessive particle 의 "of" is singularly pronounced like 에 /e/.

Summary

All simple vowels and complex vowels with their corresponding romanisation are summarised below.

Simple Vowels			Complex Bright Vowels					Complex Dark Vowels
Bright	Dark	Neutral		ㅗ	ㅏ	ㅣ	ㅐ		ㅜ	ㅓ	ㅣ	ㅔ
ㅏ	ㅓ	ㅣ	ㅏ		ㅑ		ㅒ	ㅓ		ㅕ		ㅖ
a	eo	i			ya		yae			yeo		ye
ㅗ	ㅜ	ㅡ	ㅗ	ㅛ	ㅘ	ㅚ	ㅙ	ㅜ	ㅠ	ㅝ	ㅟ	ㅞ
o	u	eu		yo	wa	oe	wae		yu	wo	wi	we
Compound			Neutral Combination
ㅐ	ㅔ		ㅡ			ㅢ
ae	e					ui

The following three sets of vowels, with their different Hangeul, have the same pronunciations by most of the native speakers in modern Korean, although the distinction is maintained in writing: