More Basic Korean Letters

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In our previous lesson, we studied the most basic letters in the Korean alphabet. There
are still some more letters that you will need to wrap your head around before we go any
further. Thankfully, now that you know the basics for making syllables, the rest is just a
matter of learning more letters of the alphabet.
The first new letter that you will learn is confusing at first but, again, is something you
need memorize before you go any further. Our new letter is:
In the previous lesson, you learned that Korean syllables are always written in one of the
following ways:

You also learned that number 2 is ALWAYS a vowel

and the other numbers are always consonants. Always always always.
This means that Number 1 is always a consonant (as well as Number 3, if there is one).
But does that mean that every syllable must start with a consonant?
The answer: Sort of.
When the letter is placed at Number 1 in the syllable it is silent, and the first sound
that is made is the vowel in the Number 2 position. Some examples:
=
=
=
=

an
un
on
eob

Using this silent letter, we are able to follow the rule that you learned earlier Number 2
is ALWAYS a vowel

What makes the letter o slightly more tricky is that it makes another sound when placed
as Number 3. When placed as Number 3, it has the sound of ng as in walkiNG. Some
examples:
=
=
=
=

kang
bang
king
kong

The letter can be placed as both Number 1 and 3:

= ang
In addition to that letter, there are some more letters that need to be learned. Luckily,
each of the following letters is very similar in appearance and sound to the letters you
have already learned. Unfortunately, this usually adds to the confusion for English
speakers, because it is very hard to distinguish between two different letters.
Ill present them in sets:
set

is the letter you already learned (k)

is a new letter. It is two s placed side by side. It sounds very similar to the
original but it is more forced at the beginning of the pronunciation. It is Romanized
as kk

is also a new letter, this also sounds very similar to the original and is
Romanized as k
set

is the letter you already learned (b)

is a new letter. It is two s placed side by side. It sounds very similar to the
original but it is more forced at the beginning of the pronunciation. It is Romanized
as bb

is also a new letter, this also sounds very similar to the original but is
Romanized as p. It is closer to a p in English, but, even in English, B and P are VERY
similar (say box and pox and try distinguishing the two)
set

is the letter you already learned (j)

is a new letter. It is two s placed side by side. It sounds very similar to the
original but it is more forced at the beginning of the pronunciation. It is Romanized
as jj

is also a new letter, this also sounds very similar to the original but is

Romanized as ch. It is closer to a ch in English, but, even in English, J and CH are

VERY similar (say char and jar and try distinguishing the two)
set

is the letter you already learned (d)

is a new letter. It is two s placed side by side. It sounds very similar to the
original but it is more forced at the beginning of the pronunciation. It is Romanized
as dd

is also a new letter, this also sounds very similar to the original but is
Romanized as t It is closer to a t in English, but, even in English, T and D are VERY
similar (say task and dask and try distinguishing the two)
set

is the letter we already learned (s)

is a new letter. It is two s placed side by side. It sounds very similar to the
original but it is more forced at the beginning of the pronunciation. It is Romanized
as ss
As I said earlier, in one way, those new letters are very simple, because they are just
building on the letters in which you already know. On the other hand, they add confusion
because the new letters sound very similar to the previous ones.
All of the new letters can form syllables just like the letters you learned in Lesson 1. For
example:
= dd
=a
= ng
is vertically aligned, so if we make a syllable we would write: (ddang)
=t
=o
= ng
is horizontally aligned, so if we make a syllable we would write:
The following table, just like the tables presented in the previous lesson will show you
how to match up the letters you learned in this lesson to form syllables.
This first table shows you all of these new letters (plus the letters from Lesson 1)
without the use of a final consonant.
Again, while it is important to familiarize yourself with construction patterns of these
syllables, you do not need to memorize any of them. All of the following can be found in
words.

Also, notice that you can listen to each new consonant being pronounced with all of the
vowels that you know up to this point.

Even to somebody who has been learning Korean for years, it is very difficult to
distinguish the differences between: , and ; , and ; , and ; ,
and ; and and . If you have access to a Korean person, asked them to use those
letters in words so you can try to get accustomed to distinguishing them. Its not easy,
but doing so is not imperative at this point.
For example, try to distinguish the difference between:
, and
While it is fairly east to distinguish from the others, and essentially sound
exactly the same.
In the previous lesson, I made multiple tables to present all of the syllable possibilities
that could arise from the letters taught in Lesson 1. Now, in Lesson 2, with the addition
of 10 more consonants, presenting all possible syllable possibilities would be
redundant. Instead, I have created a table that shows all of the consonants and vowels
being used with as the final consonant:

As I did in the first lesson if a syllable below is a word by itself, it is underlined an

highlighted. If you hover your mouse over these words, the English translation will pop up
on the screen.
Last letter:

Hopefully you arent too confused, because there are still some more letters that you
need to know. In the next lesson, you will learn the final letters that you will need to
know before studying real words and sentences. I suggest now that you try to make as
many blocks as possible with the new letters that you learned. Before moving on to the
next lesson, you should be able to:
1. Recognize the new consonants that were taught
2. Be able to make syllables by putting together formations of vowels and new
consonants.

Continue to the next lesson. Or,

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them for you right away!