The basic letters: Consonants

First, lets learn the 5 basic consonants.

LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING!!
1. These 5 basic consonants are based on the concept of five elements of yin yang five
elements philosophy. (Google it)
2. These 5 basic consonants modeled the shape of human tongue, lips and throat when
making the sound. Therefore, it is EASY to memorize.
Hangeul

Confidential

Romanization

When you make the sound of this letter :

[g]

your tongue go flat, modeled the shape of flat tongue

[n]

the tip of your tongue touches the upper gum ridge slightly.
modeled the shape of the tongue touches the upper gum ridge

[m]

your upper and lower lips meet, modeled the outline of the
lips in contact with each other

[s]

your upper and lower teeth get closer and blow the wind
between them, modeled the shape of the teeth met

[no sound]

with vowels, your throat wide open. modeled the shape of

wide open throat
1

model

The basic letters: Consonants

Now Lets learn all the other consonants
LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING!!
1. The rest of the consonants are derived from the 5 basic consonants.
2. When you make the sound of the derived consonants, your tongue, lips or throat will
make the same shapes as do when making the sound of its origin consonant.
3. You can write the derived consonants adding just one to three strokes to the basic
consonant.

Confidential

[g]
[n]
[m]
[s]
[no sound]

[k]
[d]
[b]
[j]
[h]

[t]
[p]
[ch]

half way
between R
and L

[r/l]

The basic letters: Vowels

1. Vowels in Hangeul are very simple. There are 10 basic vowels. Lets start with the
simplest ones first.
2. Basic Hangeul vowels were made based on yin and yang philosophy. Therefore, how
you feel when you see the shape of the vowels is very important.
Hangeul

Confidential

Romanization

How you feel :

[a]

When you make a sound, do you feel like its

going forward or backward? Yes, forward.

[eo]

When you make eo sound, do you feel like its

going forward or backward? Yes, backward.

[o]

When you make o sound, do you feel like its

going up or down? Yes, up.

[u]

When you make u sound, do you feel like its

going up or down? Yes, down.

[eu]

When you make eu sound, do you feel like its

horizontal or vertical? Yes, horizontal.

[i]

When you make i sound, do you feel like its

horizontal or vertical? Yes, vertical.
3

The basic letters: Vowels

Lets learn 4 iotized vowels. I dont even know what iotized means.
Lets just say there are 4 more basic vowels in Hangeul.
6 basic vowel

Confidential

4 more

[a]
[eo]
[o]
[u]

[ya]
[yeo]
[yo]
[yu]

[eu]

study tips
1. , , , sound like 4 basic
vowels with y put in front of
them.
2. We say sounds like putting
y in front of , because we
explain it in English.
Let me put it this way. [a] and
[ya] actually are in the same
category in term of the sound.
Thats why those have only
one stroke difference. So, that
one stoke adds [y] sound.

Now, weve done studying

10 vowels in Korean
alphabet.

[i]
4