Learn Korean in 30 Minutes

Vowels/Consonants: w

Twentieth letters: w! Why don't I write it in Hangeul? There is actually.. no... w in Korean. Just like there's no z, x, or f sound (for English words translated into Korean, these go ㅈ, ㄱ+스, and ㅍ respectively). But! Good news is that even though my explanation might sound a bit complicated it really is easy! Instead of having a consonant and vowel to make w sounds, they use ㅗ and ㅜ to make the sound, so really you just need to read in order. W sounds are written completely with vowels, so in order to make it intuitive for the reader, the ㅗ or ㅜ are put to the left of the other vowel in such a way that you'll go top to bottom before you go left to right. Sounds confusing? It really is not! For example, let's say I'd like to tell my friend to come towards me. I would say wa! (와! which means "come!"). See? The ㅗ is put a bit upwards so that the reader knows to read below before reading to the right.

Most of you probably didn't notice that because both ㅗ and ㅜ are horizontal vowels, they can only be combined with vertical vowels. The Korean keyboard won't even let you combine ㅜㅜ, ㅗㅜ, ㅜㅗ, or ㅗㅗ. No such thing as wo or woo. The closest thing to wo is weo, which would be 워 (as in "mweo?!" 뭐?! which means "what?!"). Wait, wait, so then what about names like Woohyun or Woobin or Wonho? If you remember the last chapter when you learned ㅣ trEE, you might recall my fun fact. Lee and Ree are both really just 이, and the L's and R's are added for comfort in pronounciation. Same case in the first two names. The names are actually Oohyun (우현) and Oobin (우빈). The third case is different! If you've studied Korean with romanization, you might've learned the Korean word for "what" as "mwo." Every time you see wo, it's 워 but incorrectly romanized. So Wonho is 원호. 원 is also the Korean currency. Fun fact!! To get an estimate of what Korean currency is in US dollars, move the point three positions back. So 5,000 원 is AROUND 5 US dollars. Key word: AROUND.

Not every vowel can go with both ㅗ and ㅜ. The "stronger vowels" like ㅏ and ㅐ go exclusively with the stronger sound ㅗ. The "weaker vowels" like ㅔ and ㅓ go with the weaker sound ㅜ. The keyboard with separate any illogical combinations, so try playing around with that if my explanation was too confusing. But about about ㅣ, you might ask? ㅣ can be combined both with ㅗ and ㅜ, but the pronounciation will be different. For 외 it sounds like 왜 or 웨 would sound, we, whilst 위 sounds like the French word for yes, wi. Why are there three different ways of spelling the same pronounciation?! To avoid so many words that sound the same and are spelled the same, which allows Korean to create MANY, MANY more words without worrying about relying on context. In other words, the more differently spelled syllables have the same sound, the more words they can make to make it less complicated.

So if you'd like to ask me why I'm teaching you Hangeul, you would say "Hangukmareul oori wae baeoogo isseoyo?" (한국말을 우리 왜 배우고 있어요?)

Now that you know Hangeul:

한국말= Korean language

우리= we/us/ours

뱁다= to learn

-고 있어= ending for current actions

왜= why?

So 왜?!?!

Because I want all of you to learn Korean writing easily!!

너를 한글은 쉽게 배우고 싶어요!!

너= you

쉽게= easily

한글= Hangeul

뱁다= to learn

싶다= to want

Don't forget to comment, like, add to your reading list, spread the word!! I answer questions. If this gets out enough I might make one for learning actual Korean!!