Making SyllablesNow that weʼve got a few consonants and a vowel to work with, letʼs try making somesyllables. Remember that a syllable, just like in English, consists of at least one vowel and atleast one consonant.Try to see what the following syllables will sound like, before reading their explanations.You can do this by covering the right side of the page as you complete each one.ᄀ + ᅡ = ?Answer: "ga"ᄂ + ᅡ = ?Answer: "na"ᄃ + ᅡ = ?Answer: "da"
Remember that ᄀ is not a strong "k" or a strong "g," and ᄃ is not a strong "t" or a strong"d." These sounds are softer, and somewhere between these two sounds.As you can already see, many sounds in Korean do not have exact English equivalents. Thisis why itʼs best to learn Korean through Hangul, instead of through writing the languagewith English or another writing system. Being able to pronounce Hangul correctly willgreatly improve your overall Korean pronunciation.But syllables in Hangul arenʼt written like "ᄀ + ᅡ," so we need to learn the proper way towrite them. Remember that Hangul uses blocks of syllables to create words. These blocksare formed in a few ways. Letʼs take a look at what the above examples would look likewritten in Hangul as real syllable blocks.가/나 / 다Each of these syllable blocks contains at least one consonant and at least one vowel. Sincethese are our first basic syllables, they each contain only one consonant and only one vowel.Later on weʼll learn how to make more complex syllables using more letters.Notice also how each of these is written ‒ the consonant is on the left, and the vowel is onthe right. This is due to the vowel that we used. The vowel that is used in a consonant willdetermine the way that a syllable block is written. For vertical vowels, such as ᅡ in theabove examples, hereʼs the block form used to write them.For block forms represented in this book, "C" represents a consonant and "V" represents avowel.
Letʼs re-write our first example (ᄀ + ᅡ) as a real syllable using the above block form.This is what we get, but it looks a bit awkward, kind of like a robot wrote it. To make itmore natural, the ᄀ is stretched out longer to make it match closer to the height of the ᅡ.Hereʼs how it will be written:And just as English will have different ways of writing the alphabet (different styles orfonts), Korean will too. This is another reason why itʼs important to learn the right strokeorder. As long as you know the correct stroke order for a letter, you will be able to readHangul written in any possible style.Before moving on, practice writing a few syllables on your own.Type: ConsonantPronunciation: This is pronounced like an "m," as in the word "mother."
Number of Strokes: 3Stroke Order: Starting from the top left, draw a single line down. Start a second line fromthe top of the first line, going to the right and then downward like drawing a ᄀ. Start thethird line from the bottom of the first line, going to the right and connecting with thesecond line.Be especially careful with the stroke order on ᄆ, as drawing it the wrong order (or justdrawing a square) can easily cause it to appear as a different letter (ᄋ, which we will learnsoon).Type: ConsonantPronunciation: This is similar to a "p" or "b." However, it is not strong like a "p" in "park,"nor is it strong like a "b" in "bat." Itʼs a bit softer, and somewhere between a "p" and a "b."To keep things simple, letʼs call it a "b."Number of Strokes: 4Stroke Order: Starting from the top left, draw a single line down. Start a second lineparallel to the first, from the top, also going down. Start a third line from the middle of thefirst line, going to the right and connecting to the middle of the second line. Start a fourthline from the bottom of the first line, going to the right and connecting to the bottom of thesecond line.Type: ConsonantPronunciation: This is pronounced like "s," such as in the word "snake."
Number of Strokes: 2Stroke Order: Starting from the top, draw a slightly curved line down sideways and to theleft. Start a second line, also slightly curved, from the top of the first line, going sidewaysand to the right. Both lines should curve inward.Type: ConsonantPronunciation: This is similar to a "ch" or "j." However, it is not strong like a "ch" in"cherry," nor is it strong like a "j" in "job." Itʼs a bit softer, and somewhere between a "ch"and a "j." To keep things simple, letʼs call it a "j."Number of Strokes: 3Stroke Order: Starting from the top left, draw a line to the right. Start a second line fromthe middle of the first line, going down and to the left. Start a third line again from themiddle of the first line, going down and to the right. You can think of this letter as a flat linesitting on top of a ᄉ. Just like ᄉ, make sure to curve the two bottom lines inward slightly