Most common syllables - reading and writing Hangul

[LewProudfoot]

I've been practicing writing Hangul, and watching the news on TV - and with Hangul subtitles, trying to read, too.

Recently it struck me that I have seen references to 120, or 290, or 400 syllables being the most common syllables, and that Koreans read syllables, not Hangul letters. When I started looking for syllables (unicode glyphs, I'll bet!), my comprehension got better very quickly.

So, where could I find a list of the n most common korean syllables? I expect this to be easy to do, but I can't find one, and lack the programming skills to write up a search routine!

Anybody have any ideas?

Thanks!

[trutherous]

Hello Lew,

It's always nice to see another fellow student of the Korean language.

I'm not sure I have ever heard of such a thing as a list of the most used syllables in the Korean language, sorry I can't help you there. I guess the short answer is the most common syllables are the ones you will find when reading the lessons here at Kclass101 Anyway, it's a matter of training your mind with exposure; how do you read this "T" ? Did you read it "tee" or "우"?

But my, my, it sounds like you've made a very large step toward fluency by recognizing syllables over individual letters. Next you'll be recognizing words just by the shape, and not really reading them phonetically -- exactly the same way you are reading this English. Think back on when you first learned to read English, starting with letters, then syllables, then whole words.

I think I would have had an easier time learning English if the written language had been neatly divided into syllables like in Hangul.

Ok, well, keep up the great work! Maybe one day we can have a Kclass101 meet up in Korea? Wouldn't that be something?

George