01. The 10 Korean Vowels Every Beginner Should Learn First

Most people think learning Korean means memorizing hundreds of strange characters.

It doesn't.

Hangul, the Korean alphabet, is surprisingly simple once you understand how it works. Instead of memorizing every possible syllable, you only need to learn a small set of letters and combine them like building blocks.

The best place to start is with the basic vowels.

There are only 10 basic Korean vowels, and once you know them, you'll be able to read and build your first Korean syllables.

Let's begin.

1. The Six Basic Vowels

These six vowels are the foundation of Hangul. Take your time with them, especially if you're hearing these sounds for the first time.

ㅏ (a)

Open your mouth naturally.

It sounds similar to the "a" in "father."

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ㅓ (eo)

This sound doesn't exist exactly in English, but it's somewhere between "uh" and "aw."

Relax your mouth and let the sound come from the back of your throat.

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ㅗ (o)

Round your lips.

It sounds close to the "o" in "go," but keep the sound pure without turning it into "ow."

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ㅜ (u)

Push your lips forward slightly.

It sounds like the "oo" in "food."

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ㅡ (eu)

This is the vowel that most English speakers find difficult.

Keep your lips flat instead of rounded and make a short sound from the back of your mouth. It may feel unusual at first, but it gets easier with practice.

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ㅣ (i)

This one is easy.

It sounds like the "ee" in "see."

2. Four More Vowels: Just Add a "Y"

Here's some good news.

You don't have to learn four completely new vowels.

Once you've learned the first six, the next four follow a very simple pattern. Add one extra stroke, and the sound simply begins with a "y."

ㅑ (ya)

This is just ㅏ with a "y" sound in front.

It sounds like the "ya" in "yard."

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ㅕ (yeo)

This is ㅓ with a "y" sound added.

There isn't an exact English equivalent, but it's similar to the beginning of "young."

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ㅛ (yo)

This is ㅗ with a "y" sound.

It sounds like "yo" in "yo-yo."

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ㅠ (yu)

This is ㅜ with a "y" sound.

It sounds just like the "you" in English.

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Once you recognize this pattern, these four vowels become much easier to remember because they're simply extensions of the vowels you've already learned.

3. A Simple Writing Rule

When writing Hangul, remember one basic rule:

Write from top to bottom, then left to right.

There's one more thing every beginner notices.

A Korean syllable always starts with a consonant.

So what happens if you want to write a vowel by itself?

Korean uses ㅇ as a silent placeholder. It doesn't make a sound when it comes before a vowel—it simply allows the syllable block to exist.

That's why you'll usually see the vowels written like this:

아, 야, 어, 여, 오, 요, 우, 유, 으, 이

The circle is silent. Only the vowel is pronounced.

4. The Best Way to Remember Them

Reading about pronunciation helps, but using the letters yourself makes a much bigger difference.

One thing that helped me understand Hangul was seeing how each syllable is built instead of trying to memorize it.

That's one of the reasons I created LingoBlock.

Instead of looking at a page of letters, you drag the silent consonant ㅇ onto a vowel and watch a complete syllable come together. After doing it a few times, the structure of Hangul starts to feel natural instead of confusing.

It's a simple way to learn how Korean letters actually work.

Android App Download => [LINGO BLOCK KOREAN]

Final Practice

Don't worry about memorizing all ten vowels perfectly today.

Spend a few minutes reading them out loud, looking at their shapes, and writing them a few times. If you're using LingoBlock, try building each vowel into a complete syllable.

Once these ten vowels feel familiar, learning consonants becomes much easier.

In the next lesson, we'll look at the basic Korean consonants and start building even more Korean words together.

LingoBlock — [Play Store Download]