Lesson 5

Lesson 5
Welcome back! It has taken me a while, but I finally found some time to work on this lesson again. Your positive feedback convinced me that it would be worthwhile, that my lessons are read and appreciated. By the way, I'd like to create similar lessons for other scripts, so if you know any, please contact me. Let's start with the lesson. In this 5th lesson you are going to learn aspirated consonants and vowels with Y.

The first aspirated letter you are going to learn is Kiuek:
ㅋ
Kiuek is pronounced as a forceful /k/ sound, transliterated as k' . Appearance-wise it is based on the soft Giyeok (/g/ or /k/ sound), but with an extra horizontal line, making it look like a mirrored F.
Let's have a look at Korean words and names that you can read now:
캐나다 country in America

쿠바 country somewhere south of the above

이라크 country formerly known as Mesopotamia

클레스 unpopular with students

알코올 popular with students

바스켓볼 sport

카메라 must-have for a tourist

마다가스카르 country east of Africa

방콕 capital of Thailand

헬싱키 great city to be if you like darkness

자메이카 country near #2

멕시코 country not too far from the above

Now practice your ability to write Korean. Keep in mind that any K-sound in these words will be an aspirated K, a Kiuek.

The second aspirated letter you'll learn is Tieut.
ㅌ
Tieut is pronounced as an aspirated /t/ . Just like Kiuek it's based on its softer version (Digeut) with an extra horizontal line, making it look like an E or like a E with a disconnected top line in some fonts.
Here are some words featuring Digeut:
게이트 like a door

테니스 sport

스트레스 problem with having an important job

인터넷 it's worldwide

넥타이 worn by men

맨하탄 borough of a big city

아이티 country in the same area as Jamaica

이탈리아 origin of the Romans

오스트리아 home of many composers

이집트 home of some very old monuments

몰타 island country between Europe and Africa

아르헨티나 country in South America

Now some more straight-forward ones that you can write yourself. All Ts will be aspirated here.
Tirana

Boston

Rabat

Antananarivo

guitar

truck

hotel

vitamin

ㅍ
This is the letter Pieup, an aspirated version of Bieup. It doesn't look quite as similar to its non-aspirated version as the previous letters have, but it looks remarkably similar to Pi! This /p'/ sound often replaces the F in foreign words, as Korean doesn't have an F sound.
Words featuring Pieup:
필름 movie

팩스 what they had before e-mail

오페라 some classical works

펜 use it to write

테이프 for recordings

파티 celebration

커피 drink

네팔 country in the Himalaya

프랑스 country known for love

파나마 country known for a canal

필리핀 Asian country that's an archipelago

포르투갈 European country

Now try to write the following, always using the letter Pieup. Don't worry if you transliterate some of these words differently than Koreans do, they are not obvious:
La Paz

Paris (final letter is i)

Sofia

São Paolo

golf

pizza

Mississippi

Florida


The last aspirated letter that you haven't met yet is Chieut:
ㅊ
Chieut looks like Jieut with an extra horizontal line at the top, and, as you can guess, it's pronounced like an aspirated version of Jieut. It's transliterated as ch' .
Chieut is rather uncommon in foreign-derived Korean words, so here are just a few words to practice with:
칠레 country in South America

벤치 a place to rest

스포츠 카 attracts girls?

찰리 채플린 famous person

매사추세츠 state of the USA

Now write the following in the Korean alphabet:
Chad

Incheon

Kimchi


The last item in this lesson is actually not a letter, it's a set of letters:
ㅑㅒㅕㅖㅛ ㅠ
These letters are all variations of vowels that you have already learned except they each have two short strokes instead of one. This is used to indicate that they are all pronounced with a preceding Y-sound: ya, yae, yeo, ye, yo, yu. Easy, isn't it?
More words that you can read now:
메뉴 restaurant thing

슈퍼 with suffix -market

쇼핑 allegedly women love this

뮤지컬 sung theatre play

모가디슈 capital of Somalia

유타 popular with Mormons

케냐 East African country

예멘 Arab country

예루살렘 holy city

사라예보 Balkan capital

휴스턴 NASA place

뉴질랜드 country near Australia

현대 Korean company

평양 Korean capital

뉴햄프셔 state of the USA

컴퓨터 indispensable tool

And a final few words for you to write, involving the new letters:
news

Jordan

Tokyo

New York

Nova Scotia


This is it, for lesson 5. You have learned a lot in this lesson and now you are so close to being able to read everything in Korean! In fact, the only thing missing are some diphthongs and doubled letters. Both concepts are quite easy and will be taught in lesson 6. Take a break and then continue on!