6. Korean Compound Vowels

6. Korean Compound Vowels

In this episode we are going to learn how to read Korean compound vowels
애 얘 에 예
와 왜 외 위 웨 의

Source: http://busyatom-koreanalphabet.blogspot.com

5. Korean Basic Vowels

5. Korean Basic Vowels

Ten basic vowels in Korean, and in this episode we are going learn all 10 vowels and practice how they can be used in the syllables. The part 1 introduces LRB type basic vowels, part 2 introduces TMB type vowels, and finally in part 3 we are going to practice real Korean words using the basic vowels.

LRB type basic vowels and syllable examples:

• 아, 야, 어, 여, 이 [a, ya, eo, yeo, i]
• 가, 악, 앙, 라 [ga, ak, ang, ra] & 갸, 약, 양, 랴 [gya, yak, yang, rya]
• 기, 니, 리, 시 [gi, ni, ri, si ] & 김, 님, 링, 신 [gim, nim, ring, sin]
• 여, 어, 이, 아, 야 [yeo, eo, i, a, ya] & 겨, 너, 인, 락, 얏 [gyeo, neo, in, rak, yat]
• 녕, 걸, 빈, 카, 얕 [nyeong, geol, bin, ka, yat]
• 김밥 [gimbap], 갈비 [galbi], 비빔밥 [bibimbap], 김치[gimchi]

TMB type basic vowels and syllable examples:

• 오, 요, 우, 유, 으 [o, yo, u, yu, eu]
• 고, 요, 두, 유, 르 [go, yo, du, yu, reu]
• t공, 욕, 둘, 율, 릇 [gong, yok, dul, yul, reut]

Practice Session:

• 안녕 [annyeong] Hello!
• 엽기적인 그녀 [yeopgijeogin geunyeo] *Korean movie (the English title is “My Sassy Girl”.
• 전지현 [jeon jihyeon] *Korean actress
• 가수 [gasu] singer
• 슈퍼 주니어 [syupeo junieo] *Korean pop group
• 영어 [yeongeo] English language
• 연습 시간 [yeonseup sigan] practice hour
• 여자친구 [yeojachingu] boy friend
• 남자친구 [namjachingu]boy friend
• 다음 시간 [daeum sigan] next time

Source: http://busyatom-koreanalphabet.blogspot.com

4. Korean Syllable Construction Practice

4. Korean Syllable Construction Practice

Writing Korean Syllables at this point should be a mechanical process which still requires some practice. In this episode we are going to write some of the Korean syllables that are constructed from the basic 14 consonants and one vowel (episode 1 and 2). In addition we are going to differentiate Korean pronunciation from that of English (Romanization). This attention to the pronunciation should help you talk like native Korean. (Three videos and the part 3 is the random practice)

Natural order (Korean alphabetical order)

1. 각[Gak], 2. 간[Gan], 3. 갇[Gat], 4. 갈[Gal], 5. 감[Gam], 6. 갑[Gap], 7. 갓[Gat], 8. 강[Gang], 9. 갖[Gat], 10. 갗[Gat], 11. 갘[Gak]**, 12. 같[Gat], 13. 갚[Gap] , 14. 갛 [Ga].

Sorted by pronunciation group

* Gak: 1. 각, 11. 갘
* Gan: 2. 간
* Gat: 3. 갇, 7. 갓, 9. 갖, 10. 갗, 12. 같
* Gal: 4. 갈
* Gam: 5. 감
* Gap: 6. 갑, 13. 갚
* Gang: 8. 강
* Ga: 갛 and also 가

** 갘: I don’t think that I ever saw this in Korean yet.

Source: http://busyatom-koreanalphabet.blogspot.com

3. Korean Syllable Construction

3. Korean Syllable Construction

The way to Write Syllables in Korean is not that obvious as in English. But, with some understanding of basic rules, writing or constructing Korean syllables is almost a mechanical process that resembles WYSWYG (what you see is what you get) style and will become intuitive rather easily (caution! this is the case for writing syllable part only. Writing words is more complicated because of some pronunciation rules). In this episode we are going to construct some of the Korean syllables using 14 basic consonants and one vowel, which we have studied in the previous two episodes.

One of the Korean syllable types can be conveniently constructed using a sectioned square box. This square filled with proper phoneme makes one unit of Korean syllable and there is a rule to fill this box. Treating each compound consonant as unit, the L section has to contain only one consonant, and R section has to have only one vowel (treating compound vowel as a unit vowel). The B (bottom) section on the other hand can have nothing (blank) or should contain only one consonant. So far we have learned 14 basic consonants (ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅇ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅎ) and one vowel (ㅏ). In theory we can construct 14 x 1 x 15 = 210 different syllables. Some of them is not used in modern Korean but practicing these syllable constructing should help you write Korean


Source: http://busyatom-koreanalphabet.blogspot.com/

2. Basic Korean Hangul Consonant 자 to 하
This episode continues the rest of 14 Korean basic consonants. As mentioned in the last episode, there is not much of science. Please just memorize, Period. In case you cannot memorize things without understanding or justification check out the Korean alphabet at Wiki.

자 Ja
차 Cha
카 Ka
타 Ta
파 Pa
하 Ha

Consonants (자음): ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, ㅎ.
Vowel (모음): ㅏ

Source: http://busyatom-koreanalphabet.blogspot.com

1. Basic Korean Hangul Consonant 가 to 아

1. Basic Korean Hangul Consonant 가 to 아

Korean Alphabet like English alphabet contains consonants and vowels. In this episode we introduce 8 of 14 basic consonants and one vowel. The way to construct words out of Korean alphabet is different from that of English one but NOT too bad. There is no science here so much, so please memorize this and the next few episodes. They will make a great asset in your Korean learning. Good Luck!

• 가 Ga
• 나 Na
• 다 Da
• 라 Ra
• 마 Ma
• 바 Ba
• 사 Sa
• 아 A

가 나 다 라 마 바 사 아
Consonants (자음): ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ ,ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅇ
Vowel (모음): ㅏ

Source: http://busyatom-koreanalphabet.blogspot.com

Sentence Structure and Order

Sentence Structure and order

(276 total words in this text)
Korean Sentence Structure and Word order

In Korean the structure of sentence differ to English sentences, for example the phrase Chal Chinaessooyo literally means "Well have you been getting on?" which is the opposite from English.
In general the structure of the Korean sentences is broken down as subject - object - verb
"Jon the ball kicked"


"To Go" in order to do sentences

There are a few words that you may add to the end of verb stems at the end of sentences, these include -yo which makes sentences polite, and -ro which means "in order to".
In some cases the verb stems may in effect end in consonants in which case -uro is utilised.
The order of the sentences for an example sentence of "in order to buy bread I am goin to the shops" is restructured as "bread buy-in order-to the shops go"
In Korean unlike English, the subject of the sentences is optional like "I", then the "in order section" is next, which is then followed by "the place you are going".

(In English) I go to the shops in-order -to buy bread
(in Korean) I (optional) bread buy - in-order to shops to go
The Konglish for this sentence in Korean would be na-do ppang sa-ro kayo (I-do bread buy-in order-to go).


* The construction can only be used in verbs involving 'going' and 'coming' and cannot be used with other verbs at the end of sentences.

Sentence Order
In regards to the order of a sentence, there are four basic types in Korean. These are:
S + N
S + V
S + A
S + O + V

* S = subject, N = noun, A = adjective, O = object and V = verb.

The tense of a sentence is determined by the last part of a sentence, namely, by a noun, verb or adjective.

In Korean, adjectives function like verbs in that they can be converted to different forms to determine the tense of a sentence.

For example,
In English, the past tense of "go" is "went."
In Korean, the past tense of "가다" (gada, go) is "갔다" (gatta, went).
The verbs function in the same way in English and Korean.

However, in the case of adjectives, the past tense of "good" in English is not "gooded" but it is written, "was good."
Contrary to this, in Korean, "좋다" (jota, good) has a past tense form of "좋았다" (joatta, was good).

Compare:
In English, "good" (present) → "was good" (past)
In Korean, "좋다" (present) → "좋았다" (past)

Therefore, the adjectives in Korean function like verbs in that they can be converted to a past tense or future tense, or any other tense forms.

This conversion of a verb(or adjective) to its past, future, present continuous or past continuous tense forms is called a verb (or adjective) "conjugation."

Before proceeding to the explanation section below, I recommend that you read the "particles" alongside this post.

To understand Korean grammar, it is crucial that you become familiar with the concept of a distinct part of speech called, "particles."

Particles are function words that indicate what the subject or object is in a sentence.

For example,
는/은 is a topic particle
가/이 is a identifier particle
를/을 is an object particle
For more information and explanation on particles, please refer to (Particles - 는, 도, 를, 가, 에).


Now, let's have a look at the four main types of Korean sentences.

Note: S = Subject, N = Noun, V = Verb, A = Adjective, O = Object

1. S + N
나는 학생이다 = I am a student
리사는 선생님이다 = Lisa is a teacher
앤드류는 의사였다 = Andrew was a doctor
저는 중학생이에요 = I am a middle school student [polite spoken form]

For more explanations on the S + N pattern,

나 = I
학생 = student
리사 = Lisa
선생님 = teacher
앤드류 = Andrew
의사 = doctor
저 = I (polite)
중학생 = a middle school student


2. S + V
주영은 달린다 = Ju-young runs [written form]
주영은 달려요 = Ju-young runs [polite spoken form]
주영은 힘차게 달린다 = Ju-young vigorously runs

*An adverb comes before a verb.

주영 = Ju-Young (a Korean male name)
달리다 = run
달려 = run [spoken form]
달려요 = run [polite spoken form]
힘차게 = vigorously

3. S + A
그는 크다 = He is big
그녀는 작다 = She is small
앤은 예쁘다 = Anne is pretty [written form]
앤은 정말 예뻐요 =  Anne is really pretty [polite spoken form]
산이 아름답다 = The mountain is beautiful
날씨가 정말 좋다 = The weather is very good

그 = he
크다 = big
그녀 = she
작다 = small
앤 = Anne
정말 = really, very
예쁘다 = pretty
산 = mountain
아름답다 = beautiful
날씨 = weather
좋다 = good

4. S + O + V
나는 사과를 먹었다 = I ate an apple.
지성은 물을 마신다 = Ji-sung drinks water.
새들이 노래를 부른다 = The birds are singing songs.
안나는 대학을 다닌다 = Anna attends college (university) [written form]
안나는 대학을 다녀요 = Anna attends college (university) [spoken form]
영희는 어제 정원에 꽃을 심었다 = Young-hee planted a flower in the garden yesterday.

*Notice that the time(어젯밤) and place(정원에) are inserted between S and O.  

나 = I
사과 = apple
먹었다 = ate
물 = water
마시다 = drink
새  = a bird
새들 = birds
노래 = song
부르다 = sing
다니다 = attend [written form]
다녀요 = attend [polite spoken form]
어제 = yesterday
정원 = garden
꽃 = flower
심다 = plant (verb)


In addition, unlike English, it is quite common to leave out the subject in a sentence in Korean. When the subject is known by the readers or speakers, it is often left out. Therefore, depending on a situation or context, it is OK to write or speak without beginning the sentence with a subject.

A subject may not be used in a sentence if it is known who or what the subject is. So, the sentences below are also correct and it is common in spoken Korean (conversations).

학생이다 = (am/is) a student
선생님이다 = (am/is) a teacher
의사였다 = was a doctor
중학생이에요 = (am/is) a middle school student

달린다 = runs
힘차게 달렸다 = vigorously ran

크다 = (am/is/are) big
작다 = (am/is/are) small
정말 좋아 = (am/is/are) really good [spoken form]

사과를 먹었다 = ate an apple
물을 마셨어 = drank water  [spoken form]
노래를 불렀어 = sang songs [spoken form]
어제 꽃을 심었어요 = planted a flower yesterday [polite spoken form]

As for now, please focus yourself on the sentence structure, we will going to tackle the sentence vocabulary (present, past and future tenses) as we go on to our lessons.

The Korean Alphabet Learning Korean For The First Time

The Korean Alphabet

Learning Korean for the first time!

Hangeul or 한글 (the Korean alphabet) literally means "the Korean writing."

In 한글, the Korean alphabet, consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels.
·                                 Cosonants: ㄱㄴㄷㄹㅁㅂㅅㅇㅈㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ
·                                 Vowels: ㅏㅑㅓㅕㅗㅛㅜㅠㅡㅣ

In addition, there are 5 double consonants and 11 double vowels.
·                                 Double consonants: ㄲㄸㅃㅆㅉ
·                                 Double vowels: ㅐㅒㅔㅖㅘㅙㅚㅝㅞㅟㅢ

Additionally, there are 11 final double consonants.
·                                 Final double consonants: ㄳ ㄵ ㄶ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ ㅄ

You will get to learn these basic consonants and vowels, learning how to read, write and pronounce.

For the purpose of learning the alphabet, I highly recommend the following resources to help you with familiarizing yourself with the consonants and vowels in 한글.
·                                 Learn Korean (Hangeul): Korean Wiki Project
·                                 Learn to read and write Korean (Hangeul) by TTMIK

Click on the alphabet to listen to their corresponding pronunciations.
(Provided by Korean language learning online, Sogang Unversity)

자음[Consonants]

ㄱ = g
ㄴ = n
ㄷ = d
ㄹ = l, r (ㄹ is a sound somewhere between l and r)
ㅁ = m
ㅂ = b
ㅅ = s
ㅇ = "no sound" when used as a first consonant, "ng" when used as a final consonant.
ㅈ = j
ㅊ = ch
ㅋ = k
ㅌ = t
ㅍ = p
ㅎ = h

모음[Vowels]

ㅏ = a
ㅑ = ya
ㅓ = eo
ㅕ = yeo
ㅗ = o
ㅛ = yo
ㅜ = u
ㅠ = yu
ㅡ = eu
ㅣ = i

쌍자음[Double consonants]

ㄲ = gg Click on the link to hear the difference between the sounds of ㄱ, ㄲ and ㅋ.
ㄸ = dd Note the difference in sounds; ㄷ, ㄸ and ㅌ.
ㅃ = bb Note the difference in sounds;ㅂ, ㅃ and ㅍ.
ㅆ = ss Note the difference in sounds; ㅅ and ㅆ
ㅉ = jj Note the difference in sounds; ㅈ, ㅉ and ㅊ

More links: ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ

쌍모음[Double Vowels]

ㅐ = ae
ㅒ = yae (rarely used)
ㅔ = e
ㅖ = ye
ㅘ = wa
ㅙ = wae
ㅚ = oe
ㅝ = wo
ㅞ = we (rarely used)
ㅟ = wi
ㅢ = ui


● How to form a character

There are two ways of making a character, using the consonants and vowels as building blocks.
Initial consonant + Vowel
Initial consonant + Vowel + Final consonant
 1. Examples
·                                 가 = ㄱ + ㅏ = ga
·                                 너 = ㄴ + ㅓ = neo
·                                 도 = ㄷ + ㅗ = do
·                                 루 = ㄹ + ㅜ = lu/ru
·                                 므 = ㅁ + ㅡ = meu
·                                 비 = ㅂ + ㅣ = bi
2. Examples
·                                 각 = ㄱ + ㅏ + ㄱ = gag
·                                 넌= ㄴ + ㅓ + ㄴ = neon
·                                 돗 = ㄷ + ㅗ + ㅅ = dod
·                                 를 = ㄹ + ㅡ + ㄹ = leul/reul
·                                 쟁 = ㅈ + ㅐ + ㅇ = jaeng

Characters with final consonants of ㄱ, ㄲ and ㅋ, all sound the same. Thus 각, 갂 and 갘 will sound exactly the same.

For example,

국, 엌, 밖 Their final consonants all sound the same. Click on the links to hear.

Now, below is a list of the final consonants and their respective sounds.
·                                 ㄱ/ㄲ/ㅋ = ㄱ
·                                 ㅂ/ㅃ/ㅍ = ㅂ
·                                 ㄷ/ㅌ/ㅅ/ㅆ/ㅈ/ㅊ/ㅎ = ㄷ
·                                 ㄴ= ㄴ
·                                 ㄹ= ㄹ
·                                 ㅁ= ㅁ
·                                 ㅇ= ㅇ
For example,
·                                 낚시 [낙시] = fishing
·                                 부엌 [부억] = kitchen
·                                 앞 [압] = front
·                                 씨앗 [씨앋] = seed
·                                 낮 [낟] = day

For a more detailed explanation and audio files, click here.

When the initial consonant of second and/or third characters is ㅇ, for example, 돌이 and 만악이, the sound of the final consonant of each letter is pronounced with the next vowel. Because ㅇ has no sound, 돌이 is pronounced as 도리 and 만악이 as 마나기. These are just made-up words to show you how these work.
·                                 돌이[도리]
·                                 만악이[마나기]
For more examples on this pronunciation, click on the link.


쌍받침[Final double consonants]

There are also 11 additional final double consonants. Their sounds are as follows. As you can see, the first consonant of the double consonants is pronounced. (except ㄺ = ㄱ,ㄻ = ㅁ and ㄿ = ㅂ) I do not recommend that you learn these exhaustively right away because that is a hard work and I rarely employed them in my grammar lessons anyway. So it would be better to come back to these when you come across them from time to time.
·                                 ㄳ = ㄱ
·                                 ㄵ = ㄴ
·                                 ㄶ = ㄴ
·                                 ㄺ = ㄱ
·                                 ㄻ = ㅁ
·                                 ㄼ = ㄹ
·                                 ㄽ = ㄹ
·                                 ㄾ = ㄹ
·                                 ㄿ = ㅂ
·                                 ㅀ = ㄹ
·                                 ㅄ = ㅂ




Eg.

삯  [삭] = amount
앉다 [안따] = sit
많다 [만타] = many
읽다 [익따] = read
삶다 [삼따] = boil
넓다 [널따] = spacious
외곬 [외골] = a single way
핥다 [할따] = lick
읊다 [읍따] = recite (a poem)
잃다 [일타] = lose (a thing)
값 [갑] = price

Excellent pronunciation lessons by Sogang Unversity (Korean language learning online)

Source: http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/


For writing practices,
·                                 Consonants
·                                 Vowels
·                                 Consonants + Vowels

Sources:
Slow but STEADY: http://cyjn.com/165
키드앤틴, KidnTeen: http://www.kidnteen.com/hannnum/han.asp

The Korean Alphabet:An Introduction

History and Form
Syllable PositionsKorean Alphabet Chart
Handy Word and Phrase List
Grammar Notes

History and Form

    The Korean alphabet (called "Hangul" in Korean) was developed by a team of scholars under King Se-jong (1397-1450) of the Yi Dynasty and is the most recently invented and most scientifically designed alphabet in the world. "Hangul" has only 21 vowel/vowel combinations and 19 consonants, 5 of which are the same symbol repeated twice and 5 of them are simply a consonant with the addition of an accent mark. That makes a total of only 30 basic character shapes to be learned.

    Due to western influence "Hangul" is often written from left to right and top to bottom like English, but can also be written from top to bottom and right to left like Chinese.

    Each letter of the alphabet is a simple shape that represents a sound, (some characters change sounds or just have a harder sound depending on their location in the syllable). Example: The Korean letter "ㄱ" sounds like a G in the initial position in a syllable and like a K in the final position in a syllable as we can see in the word "국 Guk,"

국	Here the letter "ㄱ" sounds like G because it is in the initial position in the syllable.
	Between the two consonants is the vowel "ㅜ"; it is represented by a U and sounds like the oo in Pool.
	And the "ㄱ" here in the final position sounds like a K.

"국 Guk" is the Korean word for country. (The sound changes are recorded on the last page and are easy to follow).
    Each word in Korean is broken down into syllables which are composed of 2 to 4 characters; every syllable starts with a consonant and has a vowel in it. For example: The word for Korea in Korean is  "한국 Han guk"; here is a breakdown of the letters and syllables for the word "Han guk"

    Syllable #1.

한	Consonant; "ㅎ" sounds like the letter H as in hotel.
	Vowel; "ㅏ" sounds like the letter A as in father.
	And the "ㄴ" here in the final position sounds like an N.

    Syllable #2.

국	Consonant; "ㄱ" sounds like the letter G in the initial position.
	Vowel; "ㅜ" is represented by the letter U and sounds like oo as in pool.
	Consonant; "ㄱ" same as the first letter but sounds like a K because it is in the final position in the syllable.

    Although the words are written in syllables they are pronounced in a continuous flow.

    Every word in Korean starts with a consonant and has a vowel; however, the location of the vowel can change in relation to the first consonant depending on which vowel is used.  For  example; "ㅇ" is a consonant which is silent and has no voiced sound in the initial position and "ㅣ" is a vowel which sounds like the i in machine. Because the long axis of the vowel "ㅣ" is up and down it is placed on the right side of the consonant like this "이" so this syllable sounds like ee as in Lee, the first letter is silent and the second letter sounds like the i in machine. Other vowels like "ㅡ", which sounds like the oo in good have a long axis that runs from side to side; therefore, they are placed underneath the initial consonant like this "으" so this syllable will sound like the oo from good.

Every one of the vowels fits into either the group with the long axis up and down like "ㅏ,ㅐ,ㅑ,ㅒ,ㅓ,ㅔ,ㅕ,ㅖandㅣ" which are placed on the right of the consonant; into the group with the long axis from left to right like "ㅗ,ㅛ,ㅜ,ㅠand ㅡ" which are placed under the consonant; or those vowels which have both an up and down long axis and a left to right long axis in the same vowel. These vowels are combinations of 2 vowels like "ㅢ" which is a combination of "ㅡ" and "ㅣ" or "ㅟ" which is a  combination of  "ㅜ"  and "ㅣ"; and the following "ㅘ,ㅙ,ㅚ,ㅝ,ㅞ" which go under and to the right of the consonant like this  "의,위"

Syllable Positions

    1. Words in Korean are formed by groups of syllables.    2. Every syllable must start with a consonant and have a vowel.    3. The following vertical vowels go along side the initial consonant like this: "아,애,야,얘,어,에,여,예,이"    4. The following horizontal vowels go under the initial consonant like this: "오,요,우,유,으"    5. These vowel combinations go to the right and under the consonant like this; "와,왜,외,워,웨,위,의"    6. There are only six patterns for the formation of syllables. C = Consonant, V = Vowel.

C V  as in "파" (green onion) C V as in "코" (nose) C V C  as in "급" (urgent) C V C  as in "김"(seaweed)

these are the 4 most common forms.

    Those that have two different consonants in the final position like

C V C C  as in "닭" (chicken) C V C C  as in "흙”(dirt)

are not that common.

    7. The sounds of some consonants change depending on their position in the syllable, for example: "ㅅ" has an S sound when it is the first (initial) consonant in a syllable but changes to a T sound when it is the last (final) consonant in a syllable.

Korean Alphabet Chart

CONSONANTS			VOWELS
Sounds in the initial and final positions.			Romanization
	INITIAL	FINAL
ㄱ	G/K(1)	K	ㅏ	A	as in Father
ㄴ	N	N	ㅐ	AE	Pay
ㄷ	D	T	ㅑ	YA	Yacht
ㄹ	R/L(2)	L	ㅒ	YAE	Yea!
ㅁ	M	M	ㅓ	EO	Young
ㅂ	B	P(3)	ㅔ	E	Set
ㅅ	S	T	ㅕ	YEO	Young
ㅇ	silent(4)	NG	ㅖ	YE	Yet
ㅈ	J	T	ㅗ	O	Yo Yo
ㅊ	CH	T	ㅘ	WA	Water
ㅋ	K	K	ㅙ	WAE	Waiter
ㅌ	T	T	ㅚ	OI	Wait
ㅍ	P	P	ㅛ	YO	YO YO
ㅎ	H	T	ㅜ	U	Cool
ㄲ	GG(5)	K	ㅝ	WEO	Won
ㄸ	DD	T	ㅞ	WE	Wet
ㅃ	BB	PP	ㅟ	UI	We
ㅆ	SS	T	ㅠ	YU	You
ㅉ	JJ	T	ㅡ	U	Good
			ㅢ	UI	UI
			ㅣ	I(6)	Sheep

1. Sounds like a cross between a G and a K.
2. Sounds like a cross between an R and an L.
3. When this character (in the final position) is directly followed by a "ㄴ" in the next syllable it's sound changes to anM.
4. Because every syllable must start with a consonant the silent " ㅇ" is sometimes used. In syllables that begin withthis consonant the first sound pronounced is the vowel.
5. All the double consonants have a harder sound than their single counterparts and are pronounced with no expulsionof air.
6. Except when preceded by an "ㅅ" in which case it sounds like I as in it.

Handy Word and Phrase List

The following is a list of words phrases in "Hangul" that you can use to practice reading. If you practice with these words you will quickly develop an understanding of "Hangul," and your visit to Korea will be much more enjoyable as you will have a better understanding of the language, and hence the country, you are visiting.

Vocabulary		Handy phrases
한국사람	Korean (person)	반갑습니다	Pleased to meet you.
미국사람	American (person)	오래간만입나다	Long time no see
언제	When	noun + 주세요	Please give me + noun.
오늘	Today	갑시다	Let's go!
내일	Tomorrow	한국돈	Korean money
지금	Now	미국돈	American money
어제	Yesterday	noun + 좋아합니다	I like noun.
나중에	Later	어떻게지냈어요	How have you been?
친구	Friend	어디갑니까?	Where are you going?
여자	Woman	들어오세요	Please come in.
남자	Man	앉으세요	Please sit down.
안녕하세요	Hi	얼마입니까?	How much is it?
아침식사	Breakfast	감사합니다	Thank You.
점심식사	Lunch	당신 이름이 무엇입니까?	What's your name?
저녁식사	Dinner	제이름이 + name + 입니다	My name is + name.
좋습니다	Good	이것이 무엇입니까?	What is this?
나쁩니다	Bad	다시 말해주세요	Please say it again.
아가씨	Young lady	천천히 말해주세요	Please speak slowly.
아줌마	Ma'am	영어 할줄압니까?	Can you speak English?
아저씨	Mister, Sir	실례합니다	Excuse me!
미안합니다	Sorry	또봅시다	See you again.
식당	Restaurant	noun + 어디 있읍니까?	Where is the noun?
화장실	Bathroom	noun + 원합니다	I want a + noun.
전화	Telephone	가고 싶습니다	I want to go.
아니요	No	noun + 먹고 싶습니다	I want to eat + noun.
네	Yes	noun + 사고 싶습니다	I want to buy + noun.
어디	Where	저는 피곤합니다	I'm tired.
왜요	Why	저는 배고픕니다	I'm hungry.

Grammar Notes

    1. Korean sentence structure follows this pattern:

Subject (Subject marker) Verb, as in:식당(이) 어디 있읍니까? (where is a restaurant?)

    More complex sentences incorporate an Object and an Object marker:

 Subject (subject marker) Object (Object marker) Verb, like this;저(는) 한국(을) 좋아합니다 (I like Korea.)

    2. The understood subject is often dropped in Korean as it is in English; so the sentence above can become:한국(을) 좋아합니다 ([I] like Korea), the understood subject "I" is dropped.

    3. Adjectives always go in front of the nouns:
Adjective Subject (Subject marker) Adjective Object (Object marker) Verb, like this:미국 사람(은) 매운 음식(을) 좋아합니다 (which means; Americans like spicy food) 매운 = spicy.

    4. Adverbs go in front of the Verb:
Adverb Verb, as in:많이 주세요 (give me a lot).

Source: http://www.korean-arts.com