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Lesson Transcript

Hi everyone. Welcome to The Ultimate Korean Pronunciation Guide.
In this lesson, you're going to learn about double vowels.
When you read Korean, you'll see vowels like this.
Look closely, and you'll see that it's actually two separate vowels.
Because of this, they are called 'double-vowels'.
Reading them is simple.
Just break them down and pronounce each vowel one by one.
Here's the first double-vowel.
Can you break down this letter?
The first part sounds like 'O', and the second, 'A'.
The sounds 'O-A' merge into one, like 'Wa.'
Listen to the pronunciation again.
ㅘ, ㅘ
ㅗ +ㅏ = ㅘ
ㅘ
Next is this letter.
Listen to the pronunciation.
The first vowel is 'O' as in Orange, and the second vowel is 'A' as in Apple.
They combine to become 'oae.' or 'wae'
Listen to the pronunciation again.
ㅙ, ㅙ
ㅗ + ㅐ = ㅙ
ㅙ
Isn't that straightforward?
What about these double-vowels?
Try to read them.
Here's the first one.
The first part sounds like the 'O' in 'who' and the second, 'U' as in 'Ugly'.
Listen to the pronunciation.
ㅜ + ㅓ = ㅝ
ㅝ
The next double-vowel has the vowel for 'E' instead of ㅓ(U).
Listen to the pronunciation...
ㅜ + ㅔ = ㅞ
ㅞ
In the next double-vowel, the first vowel is the same.
Listen to the pronunciation.
ㅜ + ㅣ= ㅟ
ㅟ
Here's the next one.
This has a vowel for 'eu' at the beginning, then 'i' at the end.
Listen to the pronunciation.
ㅡ + ㅣ = ㅢ
ㅢ
It's simple, isn't it?
Don't be afraid if you see a double vowel.
Just break it down and read it one by one and then connect them!
Now, there's one double-vowel left.
You might read this as 'O-I', but that's not correct, actually.
Listen to the correct pronunciation.
It sounds almost the same as this letter, doesn't it?
Actually this was not a double vowel in the past, although it looks like it was.
It's original sound was different.
Listen to the original pronunciation.
Since it was not easy to pronounce, the pronunciation changed.
This is the one and only exception on vowel pronunciation.
ㅚ
Master these sounds, because in the next lesson, you'll master the first set of consonants. How confident are you about your pronunciation of double vowels? Tell us about it in the comments. See you in the next Ultimate Korean Pronunciation Guide lesson!

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