Learning Korean: A Beginner's Guide to Mastering the Language
With its rich linguistic heritage and unique script “Hangul”, the Korean language is your gateway to a culture that blends tradition with modernity. Boasting over 78 million speakers worldwide, studying Korean allows you to dive deep into the world of K-pop, K-dramas, and uncover the secrets of honorifics that shape social interactions in Korea.
Embarking on the journey of learning Korean can be an exciting adventure, opening doors to a rich culture and a vibrant community. Whether you're drawn in by K-dramas, K-pop, or simply a desire to expand your linguistic horizons, this guide will provide you with a solid foundation for your Korean language learning journey.
Getting Started: The Korean Alphabet (Hangul)
For beginners, the first thing you need to learn is the Korean alphabet Hangul. Hangul is made up of consonants and vowels, and there are 19 consonant letters and 21 vowel letters.
Some people insist that learning Hangeul is crucial even to those of us who only want to pick up a few simple words and phrases. And I do love being able to decipher the Hangeul names of my favorite celebs and a few words in the subtitles before I switch to English.
Letters in Hangul
Consonants: ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅇ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, ㅎ, ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ
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Vowels: ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅗ, ㅛ, ㅜ, ㅠ, ㅡ, ㅣ, ㅢ, ㅔ, ㅐ, ㅖ, ㅒ, ㅘ, ㅝ, ㅟ, ㅙ, ㅞ, ㅚ
Hangul was created in the 15’th century by the Korean king Sejong the Great. It was made with the intention of being simple, easy to learn and to fit the Korean language. It has around 24 letters. Or up to 40 depending on how you count. The letters are pronounced exactly the way they’re written.
Syllable Structure
We write Korean by forming blocks of syllables. Below is an example.
가 [ga]
This syllable is made up of the consonant ㄱ [g] and the vowel ㅏ [a], so this is read [ga]. When the vowel has a vertical bar, it is positioned next to the consonant. However, some vowels have horizontal bars.
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구 [gu]
The vowel in this syllable, ㅜ [u], has a horizontal bar, so the vowel is positioned below the consonant.
Some Korean syllables can have another consonant.
간 [gan]
The third consonant is ㄴ [n], and when a syllable has a third letter, it is always positioned below the first two-letter combination.
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Korean syllables can have a maximum of a three-letter combination, but there are combinations where the third consonant is made up of two consonants, such as this.
닭 [dak]
In this syllable, the third consonant is made up of the consonants ㄹ [l] and ㄱ [g/k], but when the third consonant is made up of 2 consonants, one of them is silent.
Hangul is so simple that it can be learned in 15 minutes. As much as I admire the idea behind the above comic, however, I like to learn in a more structured and relaxed way. In these two videos, you get a thorough walk-through of the Hangul writing system. Even though the system is simple, watching the two videos in one sitting is a lot of information. For making it stick, I recommend that you try using flashcards. I recommend that you use the Iphone or Android app Anki for this. Anki is better than old fashioned paper-flashcards, mainly because you can add sound to your cards. You can either make your own “deck” of flashcards, or you can download one that someone else made.
Numbers in Korean: Native and Sino Systems
The Korean language has two number systems. One of them is based on the Korean language, and we call these Native Korean numbers. The other is based on the Chinese language, and we call this Sino-Korean numbers. Native Korean numbers are only used from 1 to 99, and we use Sino-Korean numbers from 0 to large numbers.
One of the most common uses of Sino-Korean numbers is money, and because Korean currency works in large numbers, talking about hundreds of thousands, or even millions is very common. For example, 100,000 won is only about 90 dollars, and 1,000,000 won is only about 900 dollars, so unlike numbers in other languages, you have to learn how to say large numbers in Korean.
-To talk about codes, such as PIN numbers
Essential Korean Phrases for Beginners
The main goal of learning any language is to speak that language, so let’s learn five must-know phrases for all Korean learners.
안녕하세요 [An-nyeong-ha-se-yo] - Hello.
Most people are familiar with 안녕 [An-nyeong], but this is the casual way of saying ‘hello’. If you want to say ‘hello’ to people you meet for the first time, you have to say 안녕하세요 to be polite.
감사합니다 [Gam-sa-ham-ni-da] - Thank you.
Similar to 안녕하세요, there are more casual ways of saying ‘thank you’ in Korean, but to say ‘thank you’ to servers in restaurants, and to strangers on the street, you have to say 감사합니다.
미안합니다 [Mi-an-ham-ni-da] - Sorry.
This is the formal way of saying sorry in Korean, and it’s the most appropriate one you can use when apologizing to people in public places. Another word that has the same meaning is 죄송합니다 [joe-song-ham-ni-da].
괜찮습니다 [Gwen-chan-seum-ni-da] - It’s fine. / It’s okay.
괜찮습니다 is one of the most useful phrases, and we can use it to mean ‘it’s okay’, ‘it’s not a problem’, or ‘I’m fine’. You can use 괜찮습니다 when someone says sorry, when a server apologizes for getting the order wrong, or when someone asks if you’re okay after you have fallen.
주세요. [ ju-se-yo.] - Please give me ____.
주세요 literally means ‘please give me’, and when we ask for things in Korean, instead of asking:'Can I have ___ ?'or ‘Could I get ___ ?'we say ‘Please give me ____. 'So when you’re ordering in restaurants and cafes, when you’re buying tickets at train stations, or when you’re asking for things in clothing stores, you simply say the thing you want and then say 주세요 - it’s that simple.
Understanding Korean Sentence Structure
For beginners, Korean sentence structure seems quite tricky, but it’s actually not that difficult to learn. The single biggest difference between a Korean sentence and an English sentence is word order. Below is an example of a typical English sentence.
A typical English sentence
SubjectVerbObject
IlikeBTS.
As you can see, the word order of an English sentence is ‘Subject-Verb-Object’. (like.)
Korean sentences can be a lot longer with multiple phrases to say where or when something happens, but one aspect of Korean sentences which never changes is that the final word in a Korean sentence is always a verb.
Korean Adjectives: Descriptive Verbs
One of the unique features of Korean is adjectives. Like English adjectives, we use Korean adjectives to describe nouns, but unlike English adjectives, Korean adjectives function like verbs. This means that they take up the same position as verbs, and they can be conjugated into different tenses.
Here’s a typical English sentence that uses an adjective.
The bag is pretty.
In this sentence, ‘pretty’ is the adjective, and it describes the subject, ‘the bag’. However, in Korean sentences, the adjective combines the meaning of the verb ‘to be’ and the adjective ‘pretty’, so it means ‘is pretty’.
가방이 예뻐요. [Ga-bang-i ye-ppeo-yo.] - The bag is pretty.
In this sentence, 예뻐요 is the adjective, and it doesn’t just mean ‘pretty’, it means ‘is pretty’. And 예뻐요 is the present tense, and we can conjugate this into past tense, ‘예뻤어요’ or future tense, ‘예쁠 거예요’.
Because Korean adjectives work like verbs, we often refer to them as descriptive verbs.
Korean Nouns: Native and Sino-Korean Words
Korean nouns are not too different from nouns in English. Korean nouns are mainly used as:
Sentence subject
Object of the verb
Example sentence
선생님이 커피를 마셔요. [Seon-saeng-nim-i keo-pi-reul ma-shyeo-yo] - The teacher drinks coffee.
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