Korean has the following vowel signs:
a | a as in father | |
eo | aw as in thaw, uh as in uh-oh | |
o | o as in poke (push your lips out!) | |
u | oo as in boot (push your lips out!) | |
ae | a as in bat | |
e | e as in bet | |
eu | u as in pull (don’t push your lips out!)The vowel ㅡ is pronounced with your tongue in the position for ㅜ u, but with no lip-rounding (smile!) | |
i | ee as in feet | |
we | we as in wetThe vowel ㅚ is therefore pronounced exactly the same as ㅞ by most Seoul speakers. (Pursed lips at the start only). | |
wi | French oui | |
euy | u as in pull followed by ee as in feet, pronounced as one sound. At the beginning of a word, pronounce ㅢ as Korean ㅡㅣ, with two vowels run together in a row. When not at the beginning of a word ㅢ is pronounced as Korean ㅣ (some speakers use ㅣ everywhere). 의자 [으이자] chair, 주의 [주이] attention |
By adding a stroke to the first six vowel signs above, the Koreans produced the combination y + VOWEL. So, for example, e (as in get) becomes ye(as in yes):
ya | ya as in yard | |
yeo | yo as in yonder | |
yo | yo as in yoga (push your lips out!) | |
yu | yu as in yuletide (push your lips out!) | |
yae | ya as in yap or Yankie | |
ye | ye as in yep |
Finally, the following combinations give w + VOWEL:
wa | the first vowel sound of wide or wow | |
weo | wo of wonder | |
wae | wa of wax | |
we | we of wet (that is, it has the same pronunciation as ㅚ above) |
This concludes all the vowel sounds possible in Korean. Any written syllable in 한글 (Han’gul) must begin with a consonant sign. In order for these vocalic signs to form the nucleus of a syllable (remember that the Koreans write in syllable blocks), they must attach to the side of or below a consonant sign. This means that even when the syllable contains no spoken consonants (when it begins with a vowel in pronunciation), you still have to start the syllable with the ulittle circle ㅇ representing a “zero” consonant. To put it another way, when a spoken syllable begins with any of the vowel sounds above, Han’gul treats the initial consonant as a ZERO, and writes it as such:
a | 아 | wa | 와 | ya | 야 |