Introduction

Since consonants cannot be pronounced without the help of a vowel, we have decided to teach you the vowel first, then proceed to pair it with a consonant. Note some of these files are set to loop, so you must manually stop the files yourself.

In this lesson, you will learn:

Consonants: ㄱ, ㄴ, ㅁ, ㄷ, ㅇ
Vowels: ㅏ, ㅜ, ㅗ, ㅣ

ㅏ (vowel)

ㄱ (consonant)

For full information about this letter, see ㅏ.

Male
Female

This is pronounced like a mix between a G and a K at the beginning of a word. However, when found between vowels, the sound is voiced and makes a /g/ sound. For full information about this letter, see ㄱ.

Practice
가

ㅜ (vowel)

ㄴ (consonant)

This sound makes an "ooh" sound, similar to 'moon' or 'blue' or the U sound in Spanish (i.e. usted in "usted"). For full information about this letter, see ㅜ.

Male
Female

This sound is the same as the N sound in English. For full information about this letter, see ㄴ.

Practice
누
나
구

ㅗ (vowel)

ㅁ (consonant)

For full information about this letter, see ㅗ.

Male
Female

This sound is the same as the M sound in English. For full information about this letter, see ㅁ.

Practice
모
마
무
고
노

ㅣ (vowel)

ㄷ (consonant)

This sound is similar to the 'ee' sound in 'see' or 'free.' For full information about this letter, see ㅣ.

Male
Female

This is pronounced like a mix between the sounds of a T and a D at the beginning of a word. However, when found between vowels, the sound is voiced and makes a /d/ sound. For full information about this letter, see ㄷ.

Practice
디
다
두
도
기
니
미

ㅇ (consonant)

ㅇ represents no sound when found in the initial position of a syllable. Instead, it simply acts as a placeholder since vowels cannot be written by themselves. However, if ㅇ is in the final (bottom) position, it makes an "ng" sound, i.e. 'sing' or 'wrong' (IPA: ŋ ), but these final position sounds will not be discussed until step 5 of this lesson. For now, think of it as a placeholder for a consonant when only a vowel sound must be written. For full information about this letter, see ㅇ.

Practice
아
우
오
이

Real Examples

Word	Audio
가구 (furniture)
가나다 (Korean alphabet, i.e. abc)
가다 (to go)
가두다 (to lock in)
고구마 (sweet potato)
고기 (meat)
고모 (father's sister)
구두 (dress shoes)
기도 (prayer)
나가다 (go out)
나누다 (to divide)
나무 (tree)
나오다 (to come out)
나이 (age)
누가 (who)
누구 (who)
누나 (older sister)
다가가다 (approach to someone)
다니다 (to go to, work, school etc)
도구 (instrument,tool)
마다 (every)
마디 (joint, knot)
모기 (mosquito)
아기 (baby)
아마도 (maybe,perhaps)
아우 (man's younger brother-but not used anymore)
아이 (child)
오다 (to come)
오이 (cucumber)
이기다 (to win)
이모 (mother's sister)

Writing

Characters are written in a certain stroke order. Korean letters are written left to right, top to bottom.

ㄱ is written like this when combined with a horizontal vowel like ㅗ or ㅜ.	ㄱ is written like this when combined with a vertical vowel such as ㅏ or ㅣ.	ㄴ is written similarly to an L.
Do not let the font confuse you, ㅁ is written like a box.	ㄷ is written in 2 strokes, do not write it like a 'C.'	ㅇ is written the same way as a Roman 'O'
ㅏ is written with 2 strokes.
	One straight line from top to bottom.