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. =)