Korean Language/Introduction

The Korean written language is properly called Hangul, although its English spelling is not always identical across sources.

Korean was written with Chinese characters, but this was replaced by the hangul alphabet. Both the old logographic system and the newer phonetic system are in use in Korea today, however hangul is predominant in everyday usage.

One who learns Hangul's phonetic alphabet might sound out printed words without the least understanding of their content. As an amusement, one might write English sentences using Hangul's phonetic alphabet.

Hangul	Hangul's phonetic alphabet	English
안녕하세요	annyeong haseyo	hello
감사합니다	kamsahamnida	thank you
미안합니다	mianhamnida	sorry

There are two counting systems in Hangul, the native counting system and a system borrowed from Chinese. They are used for enumerating different things. For comparison, think of the English cardinals "one, two, three,...", ordinals "first, second, third,..." and prefixes "uni-, bi-, tri-,...".

The native counting system is used for counting among others things, people, furniture, meals and hours.

English	Hangul	Hangul's phonetic alphabet
one	하나	hana
two	둘	dul
three	셋	set
four	넷	net
five	다섯	daseot
six	여섯	yeosot
seven	일곱	ilgop
eight	여덟	yeodeol
nine	아홉	ahop
ten	열	yeol

The Sino-Korean system is used commonly for measurements, such as metres, seconds, minutes, money and floors (in a building).

English	Hangul	Hangul's phonetic alphabet
one	일	il
two	이	i
three	삼	sam
four	사	sa
five	오	o
six	육	yuk
seven	칠	chil
eight	팔	pal
nine	구	gu
ten	십	ship

Vowels are pronounced roughly as in Spanish, except the combination "eo" is pronounced like "u" in "fun." The "l" at the end of words is non-velarized.

Shawn's Hangul page - describes the phonetic Korean alphabet.

Subject classification: this is a language-learning resource.

Educational level: this is a secondary education resource.