Note: Whenever you see romanizations of Korean words, the vowels being used don't have the same sound as normally English would. For example 산 in romanization would be SAN (pronounced as sahn) don't pronounce it like san (as in rhyming with ran) you know? We have other vowels that make that sound but an "a" in romanization does not necessarily sound like the English "a".

But this won't matter because, I won't be putting romanization anymore! I will only be putting romanization on the alphabet so you know how it sounds like. But for any future vocabs, it's just gonna be the Korean word and the English translation for it. How you read it is up to you. Reading and writing in Korean should be the first thing you ever learn. That's why the next few chapters are gonna be strictly writing, and reading in Korean and being able to recognize the characters rather than relying on romanization.

VOWELS

ㅏ : "ah" 

ㅑ : "yah"

ㅓ : "uh"

ㅕ : "yuh"

ㅗ : "oh"

ㅛ : "yoh"

ㅜ : "ooh"

ㅠ : "yu"

ㅡ : "eu"

ㅣ : "ee"

Additional Vowels

ㅐ : "ae"

ㅒ : "yae"

ㅔ : "eh"
 

ㅖ : "yeh"

ㅘ : "wa"

ㅚ : "weh"*

ㅙ : "wae"

ㅝ : "wuh"

ㅞ : "weh"*

*ㅚ and ㅞ basically have the same pronounciation. So you have to memorize which words uses ㅚ and which words uses ㅞ.

ㅇ

Although ㅇ is the 8th consonant in the Korean alphabet, it's better to start with this letter than any other consonant. Why?

It has no sound! If you see the vowels, they do make plausible sound, but it can't be left alone. It needs a consonant! So that's why there's ㅇ. It's a neutral sounding word so if you connect with any vowels, it will make the same sound. The ㅇ just completes the word.

Ex.

ㅇ+ㅏ=아 (ah)

ㅇ+ㅓ=어 (uh)

ㅇ+ㅒ=얘 (yae)