Y-vowels and the pair ㅐ / ㅔ

One stroke or two?

Play the four blocks in order. 아 and 야 have the same tall line; the second has two short strokes instead of one. The same goes for 어 and 여.

Listen to what the extra stroke adds: a quick y at the front. The vowel after it has not changed. 야 is y + ㅏ, and 여 is y + ㅓ, so the lips stay unrounded for 여, just as they do for 어.

여 is romanized yeo. As with eo, the two letters “eo” stand for one vowel.

The flat vowels do the same

오 has one stroke pointing up; 요 has two. 우 has one stroke hanging down; 유 has two. Again the second stroke adds a y: 요 is y + ㅗ and 유 is y + ㅜ.

So there is one rule for four new letters: ㅑ ㅕ ㅛ ㅠ are ㅏ ㅓ ㅗ ㅜ with a y in front. Keep 요 short and pure. It should not drift toward “ow” the way English “yo” does.

Add ㅣ to ㅏ or ㅓ

Two new tall vowels: ㅐ is ㅏ with ㅣ attached, and ㅔ is ㅓ with ㅣ attached. In today’s Korean most speakers say the two the same way, close to the “e” in “bed”.

Since you cannot hear the difference, you learn which one each word is spelled with, word by word. Start with two: 개, “dog”, takes ㅐ. 네, “yes”, takes ㅔ.

ㅐ is romanized ae and ㅔ is e. Each is a single short vowel, not a glide like the “ay” of English “day”.

Words with a y in them

Read each block separately, then play the word. 우유 is a good first test: one stroke in the first block, two in the second, u-yu. In 뉴스 the y-vowel sits under a consonant: ㄴ + ㅠ.

여기 means “here”. Put it next to 거기, “there”, from two lessons ago: the vowels are the same, and only the first consonant differs.

Words with ㅐ and ㅔ

배 and 노래 are spelled with ㅐ. 가게 and 메뉴 are spelled with ㅔ. The vowel sounds the same in all four, so look closely at the letter as you read. ㅐ opens to the right like ㅏ. ㅔ has its stroke on the left like ㅓ.

드라마 is borrowed from English. Korean does not begin a syllable with two consonants together, so a light ㅡ goes between the d and the r: deu-ra-ma.