The Korean language is made up of a mix of native words, Sino-Korean words, and loan words. Thats:
- 35% native words
- 60% Sino-Korean words
- 5% loan words
And the alphabet is super easy to learn.
The are 24 unique characters, made up of 10 vowels and 14 consonants.
The English letters in the images below show the closest letter sound for each symbol.
Vowels
The vowels are written using three basic symbols:
- ㅇ round heaven/the sky — Yang
- ㅡ flat earth — Yin
- ㅣ standing man — Neutra
When vowels are written by themselves in words the ㅇ symbol always accompanies it.
- ㅏ is written 아. The word 아이 (child) is made up of two vowel sounds and pronounced a.i, the ㅇ is silent in this case.
Consonants
The consonants are made up of five symbols.
- ㅁ soil
- ㄱ tree
- ㄴfire
- ㅅ metal
- ㅇ water
When written in English the names of the consonants are:
ㄱ — giyeok ㄴ — nieun ㄷ — digeut ㄹ — rieul ㅁ — mieum ㅂ — bieup ㅅ — siot ㅇ — ieung ㅈ — jieut ㅊ — chieut ㅋ — kienk ㅌ — tieut ㅍ — pieup ㅎ — hieut
Learn and practice writing the Korean alphabet using the Korean Writing Practice workbook.
Loan Words
- 요요 — ㅇ is silent in this word. ㅛ written in English is yo. The word is yo-yo.
- 라디오 — 라.디.오 — written in English is ra.di.o. Note thatㅇ is silent. The word is radio.
- 콜라 — 콜.라 — written in English is kol.la. The word is Cola. Notice how ㅗ does not carry the silent ㅇ when it comes with consonants?
Can you figure out these other words using the images above? (Hint, they are all food and drink items.)
- 커피
- 주스
- 게이크
- 파스터
- 피자
Scroll to the bottom for the answers.
Disclaimer: I am learning Korean and this post was written as a way to review. I will try to be as accurate as possible based on what I’ve learnt, however, some errors may be in this work.
- 커피 (keo-pi) — coffee
- 주스 (ju-seu) — juice
- 게이크 (ke-i-keu) — cake
- 파스터 (pa-seu-teo)— pasta
- 피자 (pi-ja) — pizza
