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Consonants (Part 3)
The last two lessons covered a total of 8 consonants and 2 vowels. This lesson will introduce to you the last 2 consonants, and well also learn how to create syllables with 3 letters.

What is it: This consonant () is made by making an l sound, but with the tongue starting from the same place in the mouth as when making a d (such as in dog). To say , (la/ra) place your tongue at the top of your mouth as if you are going to say da, and instead, say la. Listen to the audio file for this lesson to hear what it sounds like. How to write it: Start from the top left and draw a line to the right, then curve down. Draw a second line (the middle line) from the left to the right. The third line begins from the start of the second line, going down, then to the right. You can think of it as a on top, a in the middle (we will go over in the lessons on vowels), and a on the bottom.

What is it: This consonant () is pronounced ng, as in the word song, or along. How to write it: Start from the top, and draw a circle.

But wait, theres more! only makes a ng sound when used at the end of a syllable. When its used at the beginning of a syllable, it has no sound at all. Weve learned how to combine consonants with vowels to form syllables, but what if we want a vowel sound by itself? If you remember, a syllable must have at least one consonant, so in the cases where the syllable begins with a vowel sound, is used as a

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Page 2 of 3 placeholder for a consonant; in this way, functions like an empty space it makes no sound when used at the beginning of a syllable. Here are two examples:

,
It would be incorrect to simply write on its own, since it is only a vowel and has no consonants, and is therefore not a complete syllable. In order to make it a complete syllable, we add , turning it into . This same rule applies to any vowel.

Practice
Lets make some syllables using these 2 new consonants. Try to guess their sound before reading the explanations. All of these are available in the audio file for this lesson.

has a sound similar to an l, so this would combine to form lo.

makes no sound at the start of a syllable, so this would be just o.

has a sound similar to an l, so this would combine to form la.

makes no sound at the start of a syllable, so this would be just a.

Three letter syllables

We learned that makes a ng sound when used at the end of a syllable, but so far weve only been working with syllables that have two letters in them (one consonant and one vowel). What if we want more than one consonant? You have two options when making a syllable with 3 letters in it, and the form you use will depend on whether youre using vowels that go up and down, or left to right (just like when making 2 letter syllables).

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Page 3 of 3 (up and down) (left to right)

(C stands for consonant and V sounds for vowel)

Since is a vowel that goes up and down, youll use the box on the left to form a syllable containing 3 letters. And since goes left to right, youll use the box on the right. Here are some examples of syllables with 3 letters in them. Try to read them yourself before looking at the answers. You can also hear them in the audio file for this lesson.

, , , , , , , , ,
Answers: lang/rang, kan/gan, mom, son, ang, ong, nol, nak, tap/dap, chok/jok

Conclusion
Until now I was able to give you every possible combination of the consonants and vowels that we had learned, but now there are too many to list them all; by learning how to make syllables with 3 characters youve greatly expanded your Korean writing. Practice by combining any two consonants and a vowel to form your own syllables before moving on to the next lesson. Dont worry if you cant pronounce every syllable that you create, as there are some rules we havent learned yet for now, just practice as much as you can. If you have any questions or feedback, or just want to say hello, feel free to contact me through my web site at http://www.gobillykorean.com

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