Hey, I'm Talking To You!
Korean Grammar
Korean 한국어
Korean is a language isolate.
Phonology
Pulmonic Consonants
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||||||
| Plosive | p pʰ | b | t tʰ | d | k kʰ | g | ||||||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | h | |||||||||
| Approximant | j | |||||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||||
| Lateral approximant | l | |||||||||||
[k], [p], [t], [s] also have tensed variations.
Co-articulated Consonants
| w | Voiced labialized velar approximant |
| tʃ tʃʰ | Voiceless postalveolar affricate |
| dʒ | Voiced postalveolar affricate |
[tʃ] also has a tensed variation.
Vowels
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel.
| Front | n-front | Central | n-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i • | ɯ • u | |||
| Near Close | |||||
| Close mid | • o | ||||
| Mid | |||||
| Open mid | ɛ • | ||||
| Near open | |||||
| Open | a • | • ɒ |
All vowels in Korean can be long or short.
Dipthongs
Simple vowels combine with [j] or [w] to form the dipthongs [ja], [jɒ], [jo], [ju]. [jɛ], [wa], [wɒ], [wi], and [wɛ]. Also, [ɯi].
Tones
Sentential tone only.
Orthography
Alphabet
The Hangul alphabet has 40 jamo which are arranged into syllables. There are 20 basic consonants and 21 vowels.
| ㄱ | ㅋ | ㄴ | ㄷ | ㅌ | ㄹ | ㅁ | ㅂ | ㅍ | ㅅ | ㅇ | ㅎ | ㅈ | ㅊ |
| ㄲ | ㄸ | ㅃ | ㅆ | ㅉ | ㅥ | ||||||||
| ㅏ | ㅓ | ㅗ | ㅜ | ㅡ | ㅣ | ㅐ | ㅔ | ||||||
| ㅑ | ㅕ | ㅛ | ㅠ | ㅒ | ㅖ | ||||||||
| ㅘ | ㅝ | ㅚ | ㅟ | ㅢ | ㅙ | ㅞ |
Diacritics and Ligatures
None.
Spelling
| Pulmonic Consonants | ||
|---|---|---|
| IPA | Spellings | Examples |
| m | ㅁ | |
| n | ㄴ | |
| ŋ | ㅇ | |
| p | ㅂ | |
| p' | ㅍ | |
| b | ㅂ | |
| t | ㄷ | |
| t' | ㅌ | |
| d | ㄷ | |
| k | ㄱ | |
| k' | ㅋ | |
| g | ㄱ | |
| s | ㅅ | |
| ʃ | ㅅ | |
| h | ㅎ | |
| r | ㄹ | |
| l | ㄹ | |
| Co-articulated Consonants | ||
| tʃ | ㅈ | |
| tʃ' | ㅊ | |
| dʒ | ㅈ | |
| Simple Vowels | ||
| a | ㅏ | |
| ɛ | ㅐ, ㅔ | |
| i | ㅣ | |
| ɒ | ㅓ | |
| o | ㅗ | |
| ɯ | ㅡ | |
| u | ㅜ | |
| Diphthongs | ||
| ja | ㅑ | |
| jɒ | ㅕ | |
| jo | ㅛ | |
| ju | ㅠ | |
| jɛ | ㅒ, ㅖ | |
| wa | ㅘ | |
| wɒ | ㅝ | |
| wi | ㅟ | |
| wɛ | ㅚ, ㅙ, ㅞ | |
| ɯi | ㅢ | |
Vocabulary
Essential Phrases
Interjections
| 안녕하세요 | |
| 감사합니다 | |
- 동사 verb
- 명사 noun
- 형용사 adjective
Korean Grammar
| « Southbank Korean Vocab | Back to Korean |