Teacher, Korean words look like squares, circles and squiggly lines! (Part 2: Forming words)

Let us get down to forming some words!

Let us first see how words are formed in writing.

For the most basic word, there should at least be a consonant and a vowel. In writing, there are 2 cases.

For vowels ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅣ, ㅐ, ㅒ, ㅔ, ㅖ:

The consonant appears on the left and the vowel on the right. For example: 가 (meaning go).

For vowels ㅗ, ㅛ, ㅜ, ㅠ, ㅡ:

The consonant appears above and the vowel below. For example: 오 (meaning five).

For words which have consonant at the end, the consonant will appear below. For example: 책 (meaning book), 물 (meaning water).

As for speaking, it is exactly how english or malay goes! You pronounce the word as how the alphabets spell out.

For example:

‘ㄱ’ is ‘G’

and

‘ㅏ’ is ‘A’

so

가 is pronounced as ‘Ga’

오 is pronounced as ‘O’ (since ㅇ is silent when it is at the beginning. Do you remember?)

책 is pronounced as ‘Chaek’

물 is pronounced as ‘Mul’

I think you can get the picture now. It is so easy, isn’t it? 🙂