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Korean Writing System

Grammar Points 2 2

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Grammar Points The Focus of This Lesson Is the Korean Writing System.

Korean uses ( Hangeul as its writing system. King Sejong) invented ( ) ( Hangeul and announced it to the public in 1446, and it has been the official writing system ) ever since. King ( Sejong) invented this system, which was one of the many great things that he did for the country and the people, because he felt that it was not right for Korea not to have its own writing system. Before the invention of Hangeul, people used the ( ) borrowed characters from Chinese that had the closest sounds to the Korean sounds, but this was not an ideal system for writing Korean.

Now, people consider (Hangeul to be one of the most scientific writing systems in the ) world because it can express more sounds more accurately than any other writing system can. The biggest strength of Hangeul is that it is very easy to learn to read and write. ( ) You can learn it within a few days or even hours, so there is no reason not to learn it if you'r planning a visit to Korea. There are many loan words in the Korean language that come from English, such as "taxi," "bus," "camera," and so forth, so you will find yourself understandin the words in the signs or menus just by knowing how to read ( ). Hangeul The KoreanAlphabet

There are fourteen basic consonants and ten basic vowels in Korean. There are compound consonants and vowels too, but we form them by combining the basic consonants and vowels. Therefore, if you understand the basic consonants and vowels, of which there are just twenty-four, you can basically read everything in Korean.

In Korean, you form words by combining consonants and vowels. Unlike in English, in whic

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you just write one letter after another in a straight line to form words, in Korean you form a square for each syllable. For example, if you want to write the English name "Sam," it's three letters written one after another in a line, but in Korean, it's , one letter, composed of three parts, written in a square. Consonants

The following is the list of the basic consonants in Korean, with their similar sounds in Engl in the brackets. Korean Vowels Romanization [-g] [-n] [-d] [-r/-] l [-m] [-b] [-s] [no sound/ng] [-j/- ] z [-ch] [-k] [-t] [-p] [-h]

The following is the list of the basic vowels in Korean, with the romanization written in the brackets. Korean Romanization [-a] [-ya]

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Forming a Letter [-eo] [-yeo] [-o] [-yo] [-u] [-yu] [-eu] [-i]

Forming a letter using the consonants and the vowels from above is very easy. As mentioned above, you form letters by putting them into a square shape. 1) If the vowel has a long vertical line, like , , , , or , the consonant comes in on the left half, and the vowel comes in on the right half. For Example:

1. + = [-a] 2. + = [-geo] 3. + = [-bi] 2) If the vowel has a long horizontal line, like , , , , or , the consonant comes in on the upper half, and the vowel comes in on the lower half. For Example: 1. + = [-o] 2. + = [-ju/-zu]

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3. + = [-kyu]

3) After a combination of a consonant and a vowel, if there is one more consonant attached at the end, the consonant comes in at the very bottom of the already existing square, and th other parts get squeezed a little toward the top to make the entire shape a square again. For Example: 1. + = [-an] 2. + = [-jong] 3. + = [-bul]

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2011-01-1