Combined vowels and linking

Say two vowels fast

Play 오, then 아. Now say them one after the other, faster and faster, until they fuse into a single beat. What you get is 와, close to English “wa”.

Look at how it is written: ㅗ under the circle and ㅏ to the right, both inside one block. You can see the same vowel in 사과, “apple”. Its second block has ㄱ on top, ㅗ beneath it and ㅏ beside them.

Two vowels in one block

A combined vowel is two vowels you already know, written together. The flat one goes under the first consonant and the tall one goes to the right: ㅗ + ㅏ = ㅘ, ㅜ + ㅓ = ㅝ.

The flat vowel turns into a quick w. So 와 is w + ㅏ and 워 is w + ㅓ, with the lips relaxing into the unrounded ㅓ at the end. The pairs are fixed: ㅗ joins ㅏ, and ㅜ joins ㅓ. There is no block that combines ㅗ with ㅓ.

워 is romanized wo, but it ends in the vowel ㅓ, not in a rounded “o”.

Combining with ㅣ

Four more are made with ㅣ on the right. 위 is ㅜ + ㅣ: “wi”, like English “we”. 의 is ㅡ + ㅣ: start on the flat-lipped ㅡ and glide quickly to ㅣ, without rounding the lips.

외 is ㅗ + ㅣ and 왜 is ㅗ + ㅐ. In everyday speech both come out as “we”, with the “e” of “bed”. So ㅚ and ㅙ are two spellings for nearly the same sound, and you learn which one a word uses along with the word.

ㅚ is romanized oe and ㅙ is wae. Neither spelling tells you much about the sound; use the audio.

Short words with combined vowels

뭐 means “what” and you will use it constantly: ㅁ + ㅝ, one beat. 귀 is “ear”. 회사 is “company” and 돼지 is “pig”; their first blocks both have the “we” sound, spelled ㅚ in one and ㅙ in the other.

의사, “doctor”, and 의자, “chair”, start with 의. Keep the lips flat for the glide. If you round them, you will say 위 instead.

Three rare ones, to recognise

For completeness, here are three combined vowels you will see less often. 웨 is ㅜ + ㅔ and is one more spelling of the “we” sound. 얘 and 예 are ㅐ and ㅔ with a second stroke, so they add a y, by the same rule as ㅑ and ㅕ. Both sound like “ye”.

You are not drilled on these. Know that they exist, so they do not stop you when one turns up.

Longer words, nothing new

Every letter in these words is one you know. Read block by block: yeong-hwa, byeong-won, hwa-jang-sil, hoe-sa-won, eun-haeng, hyu-dae-pon.

화장실, “restroom”, is the word a traveller needs most often. 회사원 is 회사 plus one more block: a company employee. In 은행, “bank”, and 영화, “film”, the ㅎ in the middle of the word is often very faint in normal speech. That is fine; do not force it.

A final consonant moves into an empty seat

Read 음악 block by block and you get eum-ak. Play it: Koreans say eu-mak. The second block starts with the silent circle, an empty seat, so the final ㅁ of the first block slides over and fills it. This is called linking. The spelling stays the same; only the sound moves.

한국어 is said as 한구거. 편의점 is said as 펴니점: the ㄴ links, and 의 in the middle of a word is commonly said as plain ㅣ.

Linking is not optional or casual. It is how the words are pronounced at every speed.