Starting with your lips already rounded

These are built exactly like the last lesson, but the departure point is a lip position instead of a tongue position. And you can read it straight off the letter: the compound starts with whichever wide vowel is drawn on the left.

Letter	Start from	Move to	IPA
ㅘ	ㅗ — lips rounded	ㅏ — jaw wide, lips relax	[wa]
ㅙ	ㅗ — lips rounded	ㅐ — tongue forward, mid	[wɛ]
ㅚ	ㅗ — lips rounded	ㅐ — for most speakers today	[we]
ㅝ	ㅜ — lips forward	ㅓ — lips flatten, tongue back	[wʌ]
ㅞ	ㅜ — lips forward	ㅔ — tongue forward, mid	[we]
ㅟ	ㅜ — lips forward	ㅣ — tongue forward and high	[wi]

The movement, physically

1. Set your lips into the starting shape — a small circle for the ㅗ group, pushed forward for the ㅜ group — before you make any sound.
2. Start the voice and immediately travel to the target vowel.
3. Hold the target. The whole compound should take about as long as a single vowel, not twice as long.

ㅢ — one letter, three behaviours

This is the only Korean vowel whose pronunciation depends on where it appears in the word. It is not an exception you have to memorise blindly; each behaviour has a reason.

Where it appears	What you actually say	Example
First syllable of a word	The real thing: start in the ㅡ position and slide forward to ㅣ, lips flat throughout	의사 — doctor
Any later syllable	Simply ㅣ	회의 — a meeting
As the possessive particle	Usually ㅔ	나의 — my

1. For the full version: say ㅡ and hold. Keep your lips flat.
2. Now slide the hump of your tongue forward into ㅣ, without letting the lips round at any point.
3. It should feel like a single continuous movement across the roof of your mouth, front-to-back reversed.