Syllable Building (음절 만들기)

Building Syllable Blocks

Now that you know all the consonants and vowels, it's time to put them together! Korean characters are built as syllable blocks, where letters stack together in a square-ish shape. There are two basic patterns: • CV (Consonant + Vowel): 가, 나, 다, 오 • CVC (Consonant + Vowel + Consonant): 간, 말, 밥, 음 Vertical vowels (ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅣ, etc.) go to the RIGHT of the consonant. Horizontal vowels (ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ) go BELOW the consonant. Let's practice reading real Korean words!

Syllable Block Patterns

Let's see how syllable blocks are built: ■ CV Pattern (Consonant + Vowel): ㄱ + ㅏ = 가 (ga) ㄴ + ㅏ = 나 (na) ㅁ + ㅓ = 머 (meo) ㅎ + ㅏ = 하 (ha) ■ CVC Pattern (Consonant + Vowel + Consonant): ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ = 한 (han) ㄱ + ㅜ + ㄱ = 국 (guk) ㅂ + ㅏ + ㅂ = 밥 (bap) ㅁ + ㅜ + ㄹ = 물 (mul) Try sounding out each block: identify the consonant, add the vowel sound, then the final consonant if present.

가방 (gabang) — bag

noun

가방이 크다. — The bag is big.

Your First Pronunciation Rule

You might have noticed something interesting with the word 학교 (school). When written, the final ㄱ of 학 sits right before ㄱ of 교. In this situation, the second consonant becomes tense -- so it sounds like [학꾜] instead of [학교]. This is called 경음화 (fortition or tensification). When certain consonants meet at a syllable boundary, the second one becomes its tense (double) version: • ㄱ + ㄱ → [ㄱㄲ] (학교 → 학꾜) • ㄱ + ㄷ → [ㄱㄸ] • ㄱ + ㅈ → [ㄱㅉ] Don't memorize all the rules now -- you'll learn them naturally as you encounter more words. The pronunciation rules engine in HangeulMate will always show you both the "as written" and "as spoken" forms!