Lesson 1

All about the basics. Korean words are formed out of consonants and vowels. It is a rule that all words are formed by ( consonant + vowel or consonant +vowel + consonant).

Here are the consonants :

ㅂ = pronounced as "b/p" (used more often as b, cause, see the one below)
ㅍ = pronounced as "p"
ㅁ = pronounced as "m"
ㄱ = this is pronounced as "g/k" usually its read as "g" though like many korean surnames 김, people pronounces it as kim but its actually gim
ㅋ = pronounced as "k" (therefore this is the "official" "k")
ㅈ = pronounced as "j"
ㅊ = pronounced as "ch" (it's nearly the same as the one on top but you have to be very accurate and at the "h" in it and make sound more like "chimney", compared to the top where it would sound like "jam")
ㄴ = pronounced as "n"
ㅌ = pronounced as "t"
ㄷ = pronounced as "d"
ㅇ = like english has it's silent k, this is silent, but it put below (eg. 공 [gong] , in this word, ㅇis pronounced as "ng")
ㄹ = pronounced as "l"
ㅅ = pronounced as "sh" the "h" is a soft one but not silent, so pronounce the "h" but don't stress it
ㅎ = pronounced "h"


These are the vowels :

ㅜ = pronounced as "woo more like oo"
ㅠ = pronounced as "you"
ㅗ = pronounced as "oh" would sound like "u" to us chinese...
ㅛ = pronounced as "yo"
ㅓ = pronounced as "a" it sound more like the "a" in "ball"
ㅕ = pronounced as "ya" the "a" here has to sound like the one above
ㅏ = pronounced as "ah"
ㅑ = pronounced as "ya" with the "a sounding like "ah"
ㅡ = pronounced as "eu"
ㅣ = pronounced as "ee" this to us in pin yin is more like "i", "tee" would sound like"ti"to us chinese

So, basically korean words are formed out of these. There'll be more complicated ones but this would be it for the first lesson.
Now, for some words...try looking at the characters above and combining them to pronounce the words....I'll add the "pin yin" behind so you would not unconciously look at it ==D

나비 - butterfly (na bee)
사자 - lion (sa ja)
우유 - milk (woo you)
조 - cow (joh)
개구리 - frog (gae goo lee) *i know i did not add ㅐabove but its basically combination of ㅏ
and ㅣ making it sound like "ae" so add a ㄱ and it becomes"gae"
어머니 - mother (o mo ni) * u sometimes hear them say "o mu ni" but well this is da proper one
아 버지 - father (ah bo ji)
아기 - baby (ah gee)
어린이 - child/children (o lee nee) *well when u first see this it looks like 린(leen) 이(ee) but if
you pronounce it fast it'll sound like"o lee nee" in fact if you
try to spell it by listening to the word u might spell it as 어
리니 but its just the nature of the word it is something like the silent"k" for knife, if you were to spell it by listening to it you'll probably go"nife" but why do we add a"k"?cause we just know, same like koreans know where to put their words.
*quote, my teacher..haha (any questions ask me, i think i
can explain it better telling it rather than writing it.
호주 - australia (hoh joo)
시드니 - sydney (see dun nee) *interesting fact, as you know korean words are made out of consonants and vowels, that is why when they pronounce words like sydney in english, they go"syd*e*ney"
코알라 - koala (koh al la) * you probably would have guessed the word already ==P
종국 - china (jung goog)
대한민국 - republic of korea (dae han min goog) *korea is actually han goog, but they still use"dae han min goog" when they are cheering for their team, you might have heard it during korea's match in the world cup
한국어 - korean language (han goog o)
한국인 - korean people (han goog in)
음식 - food (eum shig) *remember soft, short "h"
문화 - culture (moon hwa) *ㅗ plus ㅏ =ㅘ (this you pronounce as "wa"
공부 - study (gong boo)

The ones below are verbs, though they are written that way, they are not usually said that way...I'll explain more with the examples...

가다 - go (ka da) 가means go while 다 is usually added after the word to signify or to show that
it is a verb, people usually go"가"(go)or"가자"(lets go). I do not know why yet
but more will be explained in my next lesson, so bear with me ==P
오가 - come (oh da)
자가 - sleep ( ja da)
먹가 - eat (mog da)
지내가 - stay (jee nae da)
고맙가 - thank (goh mab da)

Well thats all for now, o_O still kinda hard typing on this korean format keyboard but its good practice ==P

Credit to my teacher, 은아 (eunah)

Any questions leave a comment, or any suggestions on how i could make it easier or improve on my posts leave a comment too....