Hi! Before proceeding with the last 11 letters in Korean language, let's have some reading practice.
I have randomly picked consonants
and vowels, and combined them together to make a syllable. Your job is to try to read them.
Here is the first syllable. Pause the video and try to read it.
This syllable is pronounced as PI.
How about this one?
This is SHI, not SI.
If you don't know why, please watch the previous lesson.
The next is P’YO.
You know how it sounds. Your job is to write it in Korean.
Okay this is how the syllable P’YO looks.
The last one is HO.
Pause the video again and give it a try.
You might have got some questions in your head, while solving the last two quizzes, right?
Like, why did I put the vowel below the consonant but not next to it.
So this is one more unique thing about Korean writing.
Vowels in Korean language should be placed next to a consonant or below the consonant
depending on the type of this vowel, whether it’s a horizontal or a vertical vowel.
These five I call as vertical vowels.
I'm not sure if this term is used in Korean language linguistics.
I just made it up, because such classification is going to help you to learn Korean writing faster.
So, vertical vowels should only be placed next to a consonant and only in the first row
or in the first line.
You can call it whatever you like. It's not an official terminology that is used in Korean language linguistics.
So, horizontal vowels, in its turn, should only be placed in the second row.
You may ask, what line or a row I'm talking about?
The thing is, in Korean language letters should be assembled into syllable blocks.
Each block can have up to three rows like you see in this example:
One, two, and three. And in these two syllables KO and KAM.
There are two rows: the first one and the second.
And here, there is just one row. You should keep these rules in mind.
And consonants can be placed in any row: first, second, and even in the third row.
Now let's try to solve a more interesting quiz. Your job is to write this country name in Korean.
And since we haven't learnt the letter E yet, I put it over here, so that you could use it.
Pause the video now and give it a try.
So, if your answer looks like this, then it's wrong.
As mentioned earlier, letters in Korean language should be assembled into a syllable block.
First, let's define syllables in this word. There are five syllables.
If you are not familiar with syllables, these examples in English should give you an idea.
Each syllable should have one vowel sound. There are five syllables in the word University,
two in English and Egypt, and four in television.
Let's assemble these letters into five syllable blocks.
And this is what you should get. Take a look at the first and the last syllable.
Both start with this circle.
This circle actually has its name in Korean. As mentioned in the first lesson of this course,
each consonant in Korean language has its own name.
Let’s give some respect to this circle and call it by its official name, which is [ i u'ng ]
So, here is the rule. When a syllable starts with a vowel,
you should put [ i u'ng ] before that vowel.
And when it is placed before a vowel,
it doesn't produce any sound.
And when it’s the last letter in a syllable, it should be pronounced as -ng-
Let's take a look at a few examples.
How would you read them? Pause the video and give it a try.
So, these are IL, I, O, YUK, YO’NG.
All this syllables start with a vowel, that's why we put [ i u'ng ] before these vowels.
And in the last example [ i u'ng ] is used twice, here and here.
In the first case it doesn't produce any sound as it's placed before a vowel,
and in the second case it sounds as -ng- since it’s the last letter in a syllable.
I hope it makes sense.
If you have any questions feel free to write them in the comments section.
Now let's talk about syllable blocks in more detail.
Like what are the assembling principles and
up to how many letters can be put into one syllable?
By the way, knowing these principles is going to help you with writing your name
and anything that is not a Korean word.
Because with Korean words
you don't have to figure out on your own,
where you should put this or that letter,
because their position in a syllable block is already predefined
and you just need to know it.
Okay, there are 9 possible variations of how Korean consonants and vowels
can be combined into a syllable block.
and the block type is determined by a vowel type,
if it’s a vertical vowel, a horizontal vowel, or one of these 7 double vowels,
you will have to combine consonants and vowels in a different way.
It sounds complicated, but there is a logic behind it.
So, it’s actually pretty easy. These are 10 basic vowels.
And these are 11 double vowels. We haven't covered them yet,
so I'll remove them from this list and
we will get back to them in the next lesson.
Each syllable block can have from 2 to 4 letters,
where one is a vowel and the rest are consonants.
Some Korean books and teachers say that
one syllable block can have up to 6 letters.
This is because they count double consonants and double vowels as two letters.
Here you can see 3 variations of how Korean consonants and VERTICAL vowels can be combined
depending on the number of letters in a syllable.
You can’t write 3 letters in a row. Like, one, two, three.
You should write 3rd and 4th letters on the bottom.
Here you can see some real life examples.
If you like, you can repeat after me and practice some writing.
Here are the next 3 variations of how consonants and HORIZONTAL vowels can be combined together.
And here are more life examples. Practice a bit.
Now take a look at the whole picture.
Compare these blocks.
As you can see, there is a logic behind it.
So, it shouldn’t be that extremely difficult for you to understand and
become good at writing and reading Korean.
We have learned a bunch of things. And here a few key points of this lesson.
You can pause the video and go through them.
and if you still feel confused you can watch this video again.
That’s all for today.
Don’t forget to check out the homework in the description box,
and if you liked today’s lesson,
please leave it a like and see you next time!