ㅏ ㅓ ㅗ ㅜ ㅡ ㅣ — held steady, never gliding. Two of them do not exist in English at all.
Six vowels. Three are made at the back of your mouth, three at the front, and the only other thing that changes is what your lips are doing. Learn these six as body positions, not as sounds you are trying to match by ear, and the other fourteen Korean vowels are just combinations of them.
The most open sound in the language. Everything else is measured against how open this one is.
Stack two fingertips and put them between your teeth. If they fit, your jaw is open enough. Most beginners open about half this much.
English speakers reach for the vowel in “father”, which is close — but the English one drifts and shortens. Korean ㅏ stays wide open the whole time.
Made in almost the same place as ㅏ, but pulled back and slightly closed. The whole difficulty is your lips.
Mirror. Say ㅗ, then ㅓ. Your lips must not travel forward for ㅓ. If they do, you just said ㅗ.
The single most common error in the entire language for English speakers: rounding this vowel. It is not the vowel in “saw” or “more”. Think of the vowel in “cut” with your jaw dropped further, and with the lips doing absolutely nothing.
Back of the tongue raised to mid height, and the lips do real work.
Hold the sound for three seconds while watching your lips. In English this vowel closes down at the end — you will probably see it happen. Stop it.
English “go” is two vowels wearing one letter: it starts open and slides into a w-shape. Korean ㅗ never slides.
The tongue as high and as far back as it goes, with the lips pushed forward into a tight ring.
Put a fingertip lightly against your lips. You should feel them pressing forward against it, not sitting flat.
English speakers under-round this. English “moon” lets the lips stay fairly slack; Korean ㅜ needs real forward pressure.
No Korean word is written with only vowels and this one — you will read it in words from lesson 3 onward.
There is no English vowel here. Not a close one, not a distant one. You have to build it.
Rest one finger on your lips and switch back and forth: ㅜ ㅡ ㅜ ㅡ. Your finger should feel the lips moving. Your tongue should feel like it is doing nothing at all.
Almost every English speaker substitutes the vowel in “book”, or the lazy vowel at the end of “sofa”. Both are made lower and further forward. If your jaw drops when you say ㅡ, it is wrong.
Same here — this vowel needs a consonant next to it before it makes a word.
Tongue high and crowded toward the front, lips stretched wide.
Mirror: your lips should be visibly wider than at rest, and they must stay that width the whole time.
English “see” glides slightly upward at the end. Korean ㅣ starts at its target and stays there.
This is the whole system. Read it as a set of body positions: how high the tongue sits, whether the hump is toward the front or the back, and what the lips are doing.
| Tongue toward the front | Tongue toward the back, lips flat | Tongue toward the back, lips rounded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tongue high | ㅣ [i] | ㅡ [ɯ] | ㅜ [u] |
| Tongue middle | — | ㅓ [ʌ] | ㅗ [o] |
| Tongue low | — | ㅏ [a] | — |
Each pair changes one dial and nothing else. Play them back to back until the difference is obvious, then try to produce it.
Identical tongue. The lips round for the second one.
Same story one step lower: the second one rounds.
Same height, same flat lips — the tongue hump slides from front to back.
The jaw closes and the tongue pulls back.
HanDa corrects every sentence you write or say — in real conversation, not flashcards.