Two more vowels: ㅡ and ㅣ

Two bare lines

Play both. Last lesson every vowel had a long line and a short stroke. These two have no stroke at all: a flat line under the circle in 으, a tall line beside the circle in 이.

이 is the easy one: the vowel of “see”, lips spread, kept short. 으 will be new to your mouth. Listen to it a few times before you try to copy it; the next step shows how it is made.

Same flat line, different lips

우 has a stroke hanging down and is said with the lips pushed forward into a small circle. 으 has no stroke, and the lips do nothing: they stay flat, slightly spread.

To find 으, say a long 우 and, without moving your tongue, pull your lips back into a faint smile. English has no vowel like the one you end up with. It is not “oo” and it is not “uh”.

“eu” is a romanization for one single vowel. It is not “e” followed by “u”, and it does not sound like the French or German “eu”.

Flat goes under, tall goes beside

The two new vowels are ㅡ and ㅣ. They follow the rule you already know. A vowel cannot stand alone, so the silent circle ㅇ takes the first seat.

ㅡ is a flat vowel, so it sits under the circle, like ㅗ and ㅜ. ㅣ is a tall vowel, so it stands to the right of the circle, like ㅏ and ㅓ. You now have six vowels: ㅏ ㅓ ㅗ ㅜ ㅡ ㅣ.

Your first real words

Until now you have read sounds. These two are words with meanings. 아이 means “child” and 오이 means “cucumber”.

Read from left to right, one block at a time, and give each block its own beat: a-i, o-i. English wants to squeeze each of these into one syllable, like “eye” and “oy”. Korean keeps two clear beats of equal weight.