Maria's Korean Lesson #2: The Mystery ㅇ

The previous lesson talked about ㅇ mysteriously popping up in Korean. Read on to find out what ㅇ is :3

You know how in English  you say "an" instead of "a" when the following word starts with a vowel? 'An egg", "An astronaut," "An oval," etc. Korean has something similar to that too.

If a word starts with a vowel, let's take "an" for example, then you can't simply write ㅏㄴ, it doesn't work that way. You need to add ㅇ to the beginning of the character. It doesn't make a sound, it's just a placeholder. To practice, I'll teach you two more vowels.

ㅔ is /e/ as in "eh"
오 is /o/ as in "oh"

Let's practice!

1. 엔
2. 옴
3. 앟
4. 넹

Ready for the answers?

1. 엔 is 'en' -  ㅇ + ㅔ/e + ㄴ/n = 엔
2. 옴 is 'om' - ㅇ + ㅗ/o + ㅁ/m = 옴
3. 앟 is 'ah' - ㅇ + ㅏ/a + ㅎ/h = 앟
4. 넹 is 'neng' - ㄴ/n + ㅔ/e + ㅇ/ng = 넹

If you guessed "ne" for the last one, then no, you're wrong. The ㅇ does different things/makes different sounds based on where in a word it is.

When it is the last part of a character, like 넹, read n + e  + ㅇ, it makes an "ng" sound. How about some practice?

1. 홍
2. 망
3. 앙
4. 앟에

Ready for the answers?

1. 홍 is 'hong' - ㅎ/h + ㅗ/o + ㅇ = 홍
2. 망 is 'mang' - ㅁ/m +ㅏ/a ㅇ = 망
3. 앙 is 'ang' - ㅇ +ㅏ/a + ㅇ = 앙
4. 앟에 is 'ahe' - ㅇ +ㅏ/a + ㅎ/h + ㅇ + ㅔ/e = 앟에

If you guessed "ahe" for the last one, then yes, you are correct! There is a tiny bit of rule changing when the ㅇ is in the middle of a word(not character), like in 앟에. But that doesn't come into play until later.

For now, I would suggest solidifying your knowledge of the letters that have currently been taught. The next lesson will cover a lot of new letters. Here are all the letters we've learned the past 2 lessons.

Consonants:
ㅎ - /h/
ㅁ - /m/
ㄴ - /n/

Vowels:
ㅏ - /a/
ㅔ - /e/
ㅗ /o/