Usually, when you learn the language, most of time you would start learning how to introduce yourself. That is what I've done whenever I taught Korean to people. But, here, I've decided to little bit personalize the theme.
Today, early in the morning, I went to see a Dr. and had a small surgery. It was not a big surgery, but the local anesthesia is wearing off and now the pain is killing me. When you are sick or you are hurt, you can simply say 아파요 /APaYo/.
The pronunciation is very easy if you have read the previous lesson about consonants and vowels.
So, let's say, you have a headache. In that case, we don't want to translate directly. You could. It is nothing wrong. But there is a more simple way to say. If you have a headache, that means your head feels sick. So...guess what...
머리 /MuRi/ (a head) + 아파요 /APaYo/ (feels sick, be-verb sick or hurt).
So, eventually, 머리 아파요 is a same meaning of 'I have a headache.' Hmmm....Let's use some other parts of body. What about a nose??
코 /Ko/ (nose) + 아파요 /APaYo/ (hurt) = 코 아파요 (A nose is hurt.)
눈/Nu:n/ (an eay) + 아파요 /APaYo/ (hurt) = 눈 아파요
배/Bae/ (a stomach) + 아파요/APaYo/ (hurt) = 배 아파요
허리/HuRi/ (a waist) + 아파요/APaYo/ (hurt) = 허리 아파요
목/Mog/ (a neck, or throat) + 아파요 /APaYo/ (hurt) = 목 아파요
팔/Pal/ (an arm) + 아파요 = 팔 아파요
다리/DaRi/ (a leg) + 아파요 = 다리 아파요
Tip #1.
If you want to say more kind of fancy, you can put a special letter to make the sentence smooth. This letter indicates the subject. So, for example, when you say '눈 아파요', '눈' is a subject and '아파요' is kind of verb part. After '눈', if you add '이 /i/', the '이' indicates that '눈' is a subject. Therefore, you can say '눈이 아파요' /Nu:nI APaYo/. Although you write '눈이', the pronunciation of '눈이 /Nu:nI/' and '누니'/Nu:Ni/.
눈이 /Nu:nI/ 아파요.
목이 /MogI/ 아파요.
팔이/PalI/ 아파요.
The one of character of this '이/i/' is that it comes when the previous letter consists of a consonant +vowel+ consonant (finished with a consonant: e.g. 눈/Nu:n/, 목/Mog/) .
Tip #2. Then, the question is raised, what if the previous letter consists of a consonant and vowel like 코 /Ko/, 머리/MuRi/ or 다리/DaRi/? In these cases, you use '가'/Ga/.
머리가 /MuRiGa/ 아파요.
코가/KoGa/ 아파요.
다리가/DaRiGa/ 아파요.
허리가/HuRiGa/ 아파요.
How about that?? You can easily speak in Korean when some of your body part is hurt or feels sick.
Oh!!! When you want to ask someone what part she/he feels sick, you say,
어디/UDi/ (where) 아파요? (the intonation is going up in the end.)
Or, You could also say, "어디가/UDiGa/ 아파요? here, the '가/Ga/' is the same function of Tip #2.
So, what happened to me?? I got the surgery in my inner mouth. So if you ask me,
'어디가 아파요?'
I would say,
'입 안이 아파요' /Yip AnI APaYo/ --> 입 /Yip/ (a mouth) 안 /An/ (inner, inside) 이/i/ (Tip #1.) , 아파요. =)
Hope you have a healthy life. Having a surgery is quite horrible. ;P
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Lesson#2. Sounds of Vowels
Today, I'd like to talk a bit about vowels.
Korean has 10 basic vowels. Plus, I would say, there are actually more than 10, when some of vowels are combined.
Okay. Let's get into the business. =)
1. ㅏ/ah/ 아 --> Father's 'a' sound
2.ㅑ /ya/야 ---> Yacht 's 'ya' sound. It is not exactly same sound, I would say. But I think it is pretty similar.
3. ㅓ /eo, u/ 어 --> Subway's 'u' sound. It is a short 'u' sound. When I learned English, I've learn 'long sound' and 'short sound'. U was the one of case. If you U has got the long sound with combining other vowel, it is sound like 'oo'. But if it is a short sound, it is more like 'eo' sound. ㅓ is close to a short sound of U. In the further lessons, I probably use /eo/ and /u/ for explaining ㅓ, interchangeably. So, I hope there is no confusion about that.
4. ㅕ/yeo, yu/ 여 ---> I can't think about any equivalent words for this in English.
But, Hyundai could be the good example of the ㅕ sound.
HyunDai is 현대 in Korean. So, you can see H --> ㅎ/ Yu--> ㅕ/ N--> ㄴ.
Another example for this is my own name. WooRyung, in Korean, 우령. R --> ㄹ/ yu --> ㅕ/ ng --> ㅇ.
5. ㅗ /o/ 오 ---> Oasis, Zone's O sound. I know sometimes O can sound like ㅏ (pot, dot, mom...), but in Korean ㅗ sound is a kind of long sound of O.
6. ㅛ/yo/ 요 --> Yoyo's 'Yo' sound.
7.ㅜ /u:, oo/ 우 --> June's U, Moon's 'OO', Julie's U' sound.
8. ㅠ /yu:/ 유 --> 'You' sound.
9. ㅡ /eu/ 으 --> It is probably one of vowels, kind of hard to explain. But I found that it can be made the similar sound when I write 'eu'. It is usually easy to demonstrate with the shape of lips. When you pronounce ㅡ, your lips are slightly open (doesn't need to be big), but your upper and lower teeth are closed, and the tongue is kind of in the air, not touching anything.
10. ㅣ /i:, ee/ 이 --> This is one of the easy sound. Jeep's 'ee', Jean's 'ea' sound, Singing 'i' sound.
Now, let's practice some of words. Umm...what about using fruit name?? And, if you remember consonant sounds, it makes more fun practice.
Here we go.
Korean /sound/ (meaning)
1. 바나나 /BaNaNa/ (banana)
2. 귤 /Gyu:l/ (Mandarin Orange - Korean Style)
3. 사과 /SaGwa/ (Apple) --> I'll touch on 'wa' sound later.
4. 딸기 /DdalGi/ (Strawberry) --> I'll touch on 'dd' sound later.
5. 수박 /Su:Bahg/ (Watermelon)
6. 자두 /JaDu:/ (Plum)
7. 토마토/ToMaTo/ (Tomato)
8. 포도 /PoDo/ (Grapes)
9. 망고 /MangGo/ (Mango)
10. 복숭아 /BogSu:ngA/ (peach)
Ummm....Now, I feel like fruit salad. When you go to grocery, I hope you have a chance to practice those fruit names. =)
Korean has 10 basic vowels. Plus, I would say, there are actually more than 10, when some of vowels are combined.
Okay. Let's get into the business. =)
1. ㅏ/ah/ 아 --> Father's 'a' sound
2.ㅑ /ya/야 ---> Yacht 's 'ya' sound. It is not exactly same sound, I would say. But I think it is pretty similar.
3. ㅓ /eo, u/ 어 --> Subway's 'u' sound. It is a short 'u' sound. When I learned English, I've learn 'long sound' and 'short sound'. U was the one of case. If you U has got the long sound with combining other vowel, it is sound like 'oo'. But if it is a short sound, it is more like 'eo' sound. ㅓ is close to a short sound of U. In the further lessons, I probably use /eo/ and /u/ for explaining ㅓ, interchangeably. So, I hope there is no confusion about that.
4. ㅕ/yeo, yu/ 여 ---> I can't think about any equivalent words for this in English.
But, Hyundai could be the good example of the ㅕ sound.
HyunDai is 현대 in Korean. So, you can see H --> ㅎ/ Yu--> ㅕ/ N--> ㄴ.
Another example for this is my own name. WooRyung, in Korean, 우령. R --> ㄹ/ yu --> ㅕ/ ng --> ㅇ.
5. ㅗ /o/ 오 ---> Oasis, Zone's O sound. I know sometimes O can sound like ㅏ (pot, dot, mom...), but in Korean ㅗ sound is a kind of long sound of O.
6. ㅛ/yo/ 요 --> Yoyo's 'Yo' sound.
7.ㅜ /u:, oo/ 우 --> June's U, Moon's 'OO', Julie's U' sound.
8. ㅠ /yu:/ 유 --> 'You' sound.
9. ㅡ /eu/ 으 --> It is probably one of vowels, kind of hard to explain. But I found that it can be made the similar sound when I write 'eu'. It is usually easy to demonstrate with the shape of lips. When you pronounce ㅡ, your lips are slightly open (doesn't need to be big), but your upper and lower teeth are closed, and the tongue is kind of in the air, not touching anything.
10. ㅣ /i:, ee/ 이 --> This is one of the easy sound. Jeep's 'ee', Jean's 'ea' sound, Singing 'i' sound.
Now, let's practice some of words. Umm...what about using fruit name?? And, if you remember consonant sounds, it makes more fun practice.
Here we go.
Korean /sound/ (meaning)
1. 바나나 /BaNaNa/ (banana)
2. 귤 /Gyu:l/ (Mandarin Orange - Korean Style)
3. 사과 /SaGwa/ (Apple) --> I'll touch on 'wa' sound later.
4. 딸기 /DdalGi/ (Strawberry) --> I'll touch on 'dd' sound later.
5. 수박 /Su:Bahg/ (Watermelon)
6. 자두 /JaDu:/ (Plum)
7. 토마토/ToMaTo/ (Tomato)
8. 포도 /PoDo/ (Grapes)
9. 망고 /MangGo/ (Mango)
10. 복숭아 /BogSu:ngA/ (peach)
Ummm....Now, I feel like fruit salad. When you go to grocery, I hope you have a chance to practice those fruit names. =)
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Lesson #1. Sounds of Consonants
Here, I'd like to introduce the Korean consonants sounds.
Basically, Hangeul consists of basic 10 vowels and 14 consonants. If we include some extended formats of consonants and vowels such as doubled vowels and doubled consonants, there are more. However, in the first lesson, I want focus on the simple ones and whenever it comes more, I'm going to add one by one.
So, the below lists are 14 consonants in Korean.
Korean /sounds/(English Meaning)
1) ㄱ/g,k/ sounds like Google's G. When the ㄱ comes as the first consonant of the letter, G is the most similar sound. But, when the ㄱ is the third consonant of the letter, the sounds is also similar to weaken 'K' sounds. So, I use G when ㄱ is the first consonant, and K when ㄱ is the third consonant.
e.g.
a. 고기 /Go Gi/ (meat or fish) --> both ㄱ is the first consonant of each letter.
b.
note. The one exception is that when the vowel sound comes right after ㄱ which is the third consonant of previous letter, it sounds more like G rather than K.
e.g. 악어 /A'g'Eo/ (an alligator)
2) ㄴ/n/ sounds like Nation's N
3) ㄷ/d/ sounds like Drum's D
4) ㄹ/r,l/ : Actually, in Korean there is no R sound. So, even if I use R, the tongue touches the ceiling inside of the mouth. The thing is that sometimes L sound is like double ㄹ. I often use R when the first consonant of the letter is ㄹ, and use L when the third consonant of the letter is ㄹ
e.g.
a. 그림 /Geu 'R'im/ (drawing) --> when the first consonant of the letter is ㄹ. In the second letter, the first consonant is ㄹ.
b. 가을 /Gah Eu'l'/ (Autumn) --> The third consonant of the second letter is ㄹ.
note. Sometimes, when the vowel sound comes right after ㄹ which is the third consonant of previous letter, it sounds more like weaken L, kind of R...
5) ㅁ/m/ sounds like Moon's M
6) ㅂ/b/ sounds like Bob's B
7) ㅅ/s/ sounds like Snap's S
8) ㅇ/ng/ doesn't have specific sound. In Korean, the letter never starts a vowel, so ㅇ is filling the consonant place in order to make the vowel sound. But, when ㅇ comes as third consonant in the letter, it makes /ng/ sound.
e.g.
a. 아기 /'A' Gi/ (a baby) ---> when the vowel sound starts the letter.
b. 가방 /Ga Ba'ng'/ (a bag) ---> when the ㅇ is the third consonant in the letter. In this case, ㅇ is the third consonant of the second letter.
9) ㅈ/j/ sounds like Jane's J
10) ㅊ/ch/ sounds like China's CH
11) ㅋ/k/ sounds like Key's K
12) ㅌ/t/ sounds like Table's T
13) ㅍ/p/ sounds like Pin's P
14) ㅎ/h/ sounds like Hen's H
** Practice**
Let's try to pronounce some words, focusing on the consonants.
학교 /HakGyo/ (school)
가다 /GaDa/ (go)
나라 /NaRa/ (a country, general term of commonwealth like France, Korea, Canada and so on)
오이/O I/ (cucumber)
자동차 /JaDongCha/ (a car)
Basically, Hangeul consists of basic 10 vowels and 14 consonants. If we include some extended formats of consonants and vowels such as doubled vowels and doubled consonants, there are more. However, in the first lesson, I want focus on the simple ones and whenever it comes more, I'm going to add one by one.
So, the below lists are 14 consonants in Korean.
Korean /sounds/(English Meaning)
1) ㄱ/g,k/ sounds like Google's G. When the ㄱ comes as the first consonant of the letter, G is the most similar sound. But, when the ㄱ is the third consonant of the letter, the sounds is also similar to weaken 'K' sounds. So, I use G when ㄱ is the first consonant, and K when ㄱ is the third consonant.
e.g.
a. 고기 /Go Gi/ (meat or fish) --> both ㄱ is the first consonant of each letter.
b.
note. The one exception is that when the vowel sound comes right after ㄱ which is the third consonant of previous letter, it sounds more like G rather than K.
e.g. 악어 /A'g'Eo/ (an alligator)
2) ㄴ/n/ sounds like Nation's N
3) ㄷ/d/ sounds like Drum's D
4) ㄹ/r,l/ : Actually, in Korean there is no R sound. So, even if I use R, the tongue touches the ceiling inside of the mouth. The thing is that sometimes L sound is like double ㄹ. I often use R when the first consonant of the letter is ㄹ, and use L when the third consonant of the letter is ㄹ
e.g.
a. 그림 /Geu 'R'im/ (drawing) --> when the first consonant of the letter is ㄹ. In the second letter, the first consonant is ㄹ.
b. 가을 /Gah Eu'l'/ (Autumn) --> The third consonant of the second letter is ㄹ.
note. Sometimes, when the vowel sound comes right after ㄹ which is the third consonant of previous letter, it sounds more like weaken L, kind of R...
5) ㅁ/m/ sounds like Moon's M
6) ㅂ/b/ sounds like Bob's B
7) ㅅ/s/ sounds like Snap's S
8) ㅇ/ng/ doesn't have specific sound. In Korean, the letter never starts a vowel, so ㅇ is filling the consonant place in order to make the vowel sound. But, when ㅇ comes as third consonant in the letter, it makes /ng/ sound.
e.g.
a. 아기 /'A' Gi/ (a baby) ---> when the vowel sound starts the letter.
b. 가방 /Ga Ba'ng'/ (a bag) ---> when the ㅇ is the third consonant in the letter. In this case, ㅇ is the third consonant of the second letter.
9) ㅈ/j/ sounds like Jane's J
10) ㅊ/ch/ sounds like China's CH
11) ㅋ/k/ sounds like Key's K
12) ㅌ/t/ sounds like Table's T
13) ㅍ/p/ sounds like Pin's P
14) ㅎ/h/ sounds like Hen's H
** Practice**
Let's try to pronounce some words, focusing on the consonants.
학교 /HakGyo/ (school)
가다 /GaDa/ (go)
나라 /NaRa/ (a country, general term of commonwealth like France, Korea, Canada and so on)
오이/O I/ (cucumber)
자동차 /JaDongCha/ (a car)
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