Welcome back! It has taken me a while, but I finally found some time to work on this lesson again. Your positive feedback convinced me that it would be worthwhile, that my lessons are read and appreciated. By the way, I'd like to create similar lessons for other scripts, so if you know any, please contact me. Let's start with the lesson. In this 5th lesson you are going to learn aspirated consonants and vowels with Y.
The first aspirated letter you are going to learn is Kiuek:
ㅋ
Kiuek is pronounced as a forceful /k/ sound, transliterated as k' . Appearance-wise it is based on the soft Giyeok (/g/ or /k/ sound), but with an extra horizontal line, making it look like a mirrored F.
Let's have a look at Korean words and names that you can read now:
| 캐나다 | country in America |
| 쿠바 | country somewhere south of the above |
| 이라크 | country formerly known as Mesopotamia |
| 클레스 | unpopular with students |
| 알코올 | popular with students |
| 바스켓볼 | sport |
| 카메라 | must-have for a tourist |
| 마다가스카르 | country east of Africa |
| 방콕 | capital of Thailand |
| 헬싱키 | great city, if you like darkness |
| 자메이카 | country near #2 |
| 멕시코 | country not too far from the above |
Now practice your ability to write Korean. Keep in mind that any K-sound in these words will be an aspirated K, a Kiuek.
| bikini |
| ski |
| condo |
| disco |
| kilo |
| Bamako |
| Cairo |
| Caracas |
| Kabul |
| Colombo |
| Hamburg |
| Hong Kong |
The second aspirated letter you'll learn is Tieut.
ㅌ
Tieut is pronounced as an aspirated /t/ . Just like Kiuek it's based on its softer version (Digeut) with an extra horizontal line, making it look like an E or like a E with a disconnected top line in some fonts.
Here are some words featuring Tieut:
| 게이트 | like a door |
| 테니스 | sport |
| 스트레스 | problem with having an important job |
| 인터넷 | it's worldwide |
| 넥타이 | worn by men |
| 맨하탄 | borough of a big city |
| 아이티 | country in the same area as Jamaica |
| 이탈리아 | origin of the Romans |
| 오스트리아 | home of many composers |
| 이집트 | home of some very old monuments |
| 몰타 | island country between Europe and Africa |
| 아르헨티나 | country in South America |
Now some more straight-forward ones that you can write yourself. All Ts will be aspirated here.
| Tirana |
| Boston |
| Rabat |
| Antananarivo |
| guitar |
| truck |
| hotel |
| vitamin |
ㅍ
This is the letter Pieup, an aspirated version of Bieup. It doesn't look quite as similar to its non-aspirated version as the previous letters have, but it looks remarkably similar to Pi! This /p'/ sound often replaces the F in foreign words, as Korean doesn't have an F sound.
Words featuring Pieup:
| 필름 | movie |
| 팩스 | what they had before e-mail |
| 오페라 | some classical works |
| 펜 | use it to write |
| 테이프 | for recordings |
| 파티 | celebration |
| 커피 | drink |
| 네팔 | country in the Himalaya |
| 프랑스 | country known for love |
| 파나마 | country known for a canal |
| 필리핀 | Asian country that's an archipelago |
| 포르투갈 | European country |
Now try to write the following, always using the letter Pieup. Don't worry if you transliterate some of these words differently than Koreans do, they are not obvious:
| La Paz |
| Paris (final letter is i) |
| Sofia |
| São Paolo |
| golf |
| pizza |
| Mississippi |
| Florida |
The last aspirated letter that you haven't met yet is Chieut:
ㅊ
Chieut looks like Jieut with an extra horizontal line at the top, and, as you can guess, it's pronounced like an aspirated version of Jieut. It's transliterated as ch' .
Chieut is rather uncommon in foreign-derived Korean words, so here are just a few words to practice with:
| 칠레 | country in South America |
| 벤치 | a place to rest |
| 스포츠 카 | attracts girls? |
| 찰리 채플린 | famous person |
| 매사추세츠 | state of the USA |
Now write the following in the Korean alphabet:
| Chad |
| Incheon |
| Kimchi |
The last item in this lesson is actually not a letter, it's a set of letters:
ㅑㅒㅕㅖㅛ ㅠ
These letters are all variations of vowels that you have already learned except they each have two short strokes instead of one. This is used to indicate that they are all pronounced with a preceding Y-sound: ya, yae, yeo, ye, yo, yu. Easy, isn't it?
More words that you can read now:
| 메뉴 | restaurant thing |
| 슈퍼 | with suffix -market |
| 쇼핑 | allegedly women love this |
| 뮤지컬 | sung theatre play |
| 모가디슈 | capital of Somalia |
| 유타 | popular with Mormons |
| 케냐 | East African country |
| 예멘 | Arab country |
| 예루살렘 | holy city |
| 사라예보 | Balkan capital |
| 휴스턴 | NASA place |
| 뉴질랜드 | country near Australia |
| 현대 | Korean company |
| 평양 | Korean capital |
| 뉴햄프셔 | state of the USA |
| 컴퓨터 | indispensable tool |
And a final few words for you to write, involving the new letters:
| news |
| Jordan |
| Tokyo |
| New York |
| Nova Scotia |
This is it, for lesson 5. You have learned a lot in this lesson and now you are so close to being able to read everything in Korean! In fact, the only thing missing are some diphthongs and doubled letters. Both concepts are quite easy and will be taught in lesson 6. Take a break and then continue on!