(Question)
gah?
가?
Literally means “Go?”
Going to school! (You’re joking!)
hak-kyo ga. (Exclamation)
hahk-kyo gah.
학교 가!
In Korean, the same sentence structure can be used for both sentences and statements. The following examples illustrate that by merely substituting the question word “where” with “school” changes a question into a declarative statement:
Where are you going?
erdi ga? (Question)
uhdee gah?
어디 가?
Literally means “Where go?”
I am going to school.
hak-kyo ga. (Statement)
hahk-kyo gah.
학교 가.
Literally means “School go.”
Broadly speaking, expressions in the intimate form of speech can be converted into the polite (informal) form by simply adding -yo at the end, which usually end in -a or -eo:
hak-kyo ga. (Intimate level of speech)
hahk-kyo gah.
학교 가.
Literally means “School go.”
hak-kyo gayo. (Informal polite level of speech)
hahk-kyo gahyo.
Literally means “School go.”
READING ROMANIZED KOREAN
Two systems are used to show the pronunciation of the Korean phrases in the ordinary English alphabet.
The upper line on the right of the page follows the official Revised Romanization of Korean prepared and authorized by the Korean government in 2000. The letters used in this transcription have to be pronounced in a certain way only: they should not be treated like the letters in English which have different sounds in different words, for example the a in “apple,” “father,” “syllable” and “date.”
Because it can at first be quite difficult for English speakers to read romanized Korean correctly, an approximate phonetic equivalent, designed to reflect the closest English equivalent to each Korean sound, is given in a second line underneath the official transcription of each phrase. Where necessary, a hyphen (-) is used to mark a syllable boundary so that any confusion in pronunciation is avoided.
Each phase is also written in Korean script under the Romanized and phonetic phrases on the right of the page, so that if you have difficulty in making yourself understood by following the romanized versions you can show the book to the person you’re talking to and they will be able to read what you mean.
CONSONANTS
(1) Simple consonants
ㄱ g, k
ㄴ n
ㄷ d, t
ㄹ r, l
ㅁ m
ㅂ b, p
ㅅ s
ㅇ ng
ㅈ j
ㅊ ch
ㅋ k
ㅌ t
ㅍ p
ㅎ h
(2) Double consonants
ㄲ kk
ㄸ tt
ㅃ pp
ㅆ ss
ㅉ jj
Most of the consonants are pronounced as in English except the tensed (double) consonants.
Double Consonants
There isn’t much difficulty in pronouncing romanized Korean except for the tensed (double) consonants that require a relatively strong muscular effort in the vocal organs without the expulsion of air.
| English | Korean | Approximate in English |
| kk | ㄲ | as in “ski,” “sky” |
| tt | ㄸ | as in “steak,” “sting” |
| pp | ㅃ | as in “speak,” “spy” |
| ss | ㅆ | as in “sea,” “sir” |
| jj | ㅉ | as in “bridge,” “midget” (similar to a tutting sound in an exhaling way) |
VOWELS
(1) Simple vowels
ㅏ a
ㅓ eo
ㅗ o
ㅜ u
ㅡ eu
ㅣ i
ㅐ ae
ㅔ e
(2) Diphthongs
ㅑ ya
ㅕ yeo
ㅛ yo
ㅠ yu
ㅒ yae
ㅖ ye
ㅘ wa
ㅙ wae
ㅝ wo
ㅞ we
ㅢ ui
ㅚ oe
ㅟ wi
| English | Korean | Approximate in English |
| a (ah) | ㅏ | as in “father” |
| eo (er) | ㅓ | as in “box” or “cut” (halfway between the two) |
| o (aw) | ㅗ | as in “fall” |
| u (oo) | ㅜ | as in “boo” |
| eu (oh) | ㅡ | as in “taken” |
| i (ee) | ㅣ | as in “see” |
| ae (a) | ㅐ | as in “tad” (often becomes more like the ay in “way”) |
| e (e) | ㅔ | as in “beg” |
| oe (we) | ㅚ | as in “welcome” |
| ya (yah) | ㅑ | as in “yarn” |
| yeo (yaw) | ㅕ | as in “yonder” |
| yo (yo) | ㅛ | as in “yogurt” (said with a slight pull) |
| yu (yu) | ㅠ | as in “yule” (said with a slight pull) |
| yae (ya) | ㅒ | as in “yak” |
| ye (ye) | ㅖ | as in “yes” |
| wa (wah) | ㅘ | as in “watch” |
| wae (wa) | ㅙ | as in “way” |
| wo (wo) | ㅝ | as in “wonderful” |
| wi (wi) | ㅟ | as in the “weed” |
| ui (ooe) | ㅢ | this is a combination of 2 sounds -u as in “pull” followed by ee as in “see.” It’s kind of like ‘oui’ in French. |
The Korean writing system, Han-geul (한글) demands that any written syllable must begin with a consonant. This means that even when a syllable begins with a vowel sound (the syllable contains no spoken consonants) you have to start the syllable with the consonant ㅇ, which has no sound.
1 What’s Up?
POLITE GREETINGS
How are you?
annyeonghaseyo?
ahn-nyawng-hah-seyo?
안녕하세요?