Maria's Korean Lesson #3: Major Consonants

Remember in the last lesson, when I said that you should try to memorize those 6 letters I gave you? Yeah, you really should, because the next tidbit of info might overwhelm you.

There are 3 types of consonants in Korean, with a subgroup. They all function as consonants, Here are the remaining Korean consonants, sorted by where they appear on the Keyboard. Note: if you haven't downloaded a Korean keyboard, this is a tutorial for Windows 7 users, this is a tutorial for Mac :3

TOP ROW:
ㅂ is /b/ and /p/
ㅈ is /j/
ㄷ is /d/ and /t/
ㄱ is /k/ and /g/
ㅅ is /s/

MIDDLE:
ㅁ
ㄴ
ㅇ is silent and /ng/
ㄹ is /r/ and /l/
ㅎ
BOTTOM:
ㅋ is /k/
ㅌ is /t/
ㅊ is /ch/
ㅍ is /p/

I know, I know. There are bolded, gray, and blue letters. Let me explain why:

The bolded letters make two seperate sounds. Let's use ㄱ - it can either make the sound /g/ or /k/. In korean, some letters share sounds - that's just the way it rolls. Like in english, /c/ either makes an /s/ or /k/ sound - you just have to recognize when you make the /s/ or /k/ sound.

With one of those bolded letters, ㄹ, it's easy to tell. Remember how ㅇ becomes 'ng' when at the end of a character? ㄹ makes an /l/ or /r/ sound - when at the begining (eg: 렌) it makes an /r/ sound. When at the end (eg: 엘) it makes an /l/ sound.

In short: bolded letters make two sounds. ㄹ makes /r/ when at the beginning of a character, and an /l/ at the end.

The blue letters are letters that are only used when writing english words in Korean. See how ㄷ is t? That only when writing Korean - if you were to write the name "Tina" - you'd write the T as ㅌ, since 'Tina' is an english word. Same with ㅋ and ㅍ.

In short: blue letters are used for english words. All of these letters are on the bottom row of the keyboard, so it shouldn't be too hard to remember.

The gray letters are letter that have been already introduced!

There's no way for me to "teach" this part of Hangul, you just have to practice it yourself. Some big things I would consider doing:

1. Write your favorite K-pop stars names in Korean! Not the English-based ones, like "G-Dragon", but the ones who go by their actual Korean name, like Taeyeon.
2. Write your friends' names in Korean! This gives you good practice with recalling letters, not so much with knowing the rules. If your friends' names are English names, then there are certain rules that have to be followed. Nethertheless, go ahead and try. Save what you write now - you'll laugh about how badly it is later on once you've mastered Hangul. I know I did XD.