Double Vowels

Double Vowels

Goal: Read and write basic syllables with double vowels.

• 11 Double vowels (ㅐ, ㅔ, ㅒ,ㅖ, ㅘ,ㅙ,ㅚ,ㅞ,ㅝ,ㅟ,ㅢ)

Double Vowels – How it is composed

• By adding strokes to basic vowels, double vowels are created. As an example, ㅏ plus ㅣ creates ㅐ, ㅑ plus ㅣ creates ㅒ, ㅗ plus ㅏ creates ㅘ. Please refer the diagram below to see how double vowels are composed.
  
  

Double Vowels – Let’s Read

• Example – ㅐ/ae/
  • ㅐis the combination of ㅏ and ㅣ. When we pronounce them /a/ and /i/, we don’t pronounce each sound individually, but rather we just blend the sounds together. If you say /a/ + /i/ quickly, it sounds like /ae/ which is pronounced like the e in the word “egg”
    
    

• Example – ㅒ /yae/
  • When ㅑis at the first starting position of a double vowel, we pronounce it and shape the mouth first. By combiningㅑand  l , if you say  /ya/ and /i/ really quickly, it sounds like /yae/ as in the ye in “yesterday”. 
    
    

• Although there are 11 double vowels, many of those sound the same. It is like the same sound but different words as in English, e.g., “buy, buy, by” and “no, know”.  For the groups in the same color below, those sound the same. Although some Koreans may say there is a subtle difference, it is barely distinguishable in the younger generations. ㅔ andㅐare pronounced the same. ㅖ and ㅒ are the same. ㅙ, ㅚ, ㅞ are also the same sound.
  
  

Double Vowels – How to write

The principle is writing the characters left to right, top to bottom

Double Vowels – Let’s Practice

Consonant	Picture	Vocabulary	Meaning	Romanization
ㅐ		개	dog	/gae/
ㅔ		게	crab	/ge/
ㅖ		예	Yes or excuse me	/ye/
ㅙ		왜 그래?	What’s wrong? Why is it?	/wae geu rae?/
ㅞ		스웨터	sweater	/seu we teo/
ㅘ		과자	snack	/gwa ja/
ㅝ		타워	tower	/ta wo/
ㅟ		귀	ear	/gwi/
ㅢ		의사	doctor	/ui sa/