Welcome to learning Hangul, the Korean alphabet! Hangul was created in 1443 and is considered one of the most scientific writing systems in the world. It's phonetic, meaning each symbol represents a sound, making it logical and easy to learn.
Hangul has a simple structure with 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Letters are combined into syllable blocks. For example, the syllable 'han' is written as one block combining three letters: H, A, and N sounds.
Korean has 14 basic consonants. Each consonant can sound different depending on its position in a syllable. For example, ㄱ sounds like 'g' at the beginning but 'k' at the end. Let's look at these fundamental building blocks.
Korean has 10 basic vowels. The shape of the vowel determines how syllables are formed. Vertical vowels like ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅣ create left-to-right syllables, while horizontal vowels like ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ create top-to-bottom syllables.
Let's practice with common Korean words. Apple is 사과, pronounced sa-gwa. School is 학교, pronounced hak-gyo. Hello is 안녕, pronounced an-nyeong. Remember to read syllable by syllable. Congratulations on learning the basics of Hangul!