Hangul Mnemonic Devices

I currently live in the beautiful land of South Korea.

The word hangul in Korean characters.
(Source: Wikipedia.org)

While I spend my time teaching children, teenagers, and adults the nuances of the English language, I am also in the process of learning Korean.

My learning style dictated that I create a mnemonic device for every single character. Although this tactic is very individualistic and differs from person to person, I thought that if it would help one person save five minutes of their life then it would be worthwhile. And thus follows the mnemonic devices I used to memorize the Korean alphabet, Hangul.

The Korean alphabet has 24 letters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels. They are written in little blocks that make up syllables. Here is a complete list:

• Consonant letters: ㄱ (ㄲ) ㄴ ㄷ (ㄸ) ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ (ㅃ) ㅅ (ㅆ) ㅇ ㅈ (ㅉ) ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ
• Vowel letters: ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅢ ㅣ

Now, before I break it down and give mnemonic devices for each main consonant and vowel, there are a few things to take note of. First, I only included the individual letters and not the combination letters, like ㅘ or ㅞ, or the stressed double characters, like ㄲ or ㅉ. Next are explanations for character variations.

When an extra line is added to some characters it adds a ‘y’ sound to the beginning of the root letter or creates a new sound altogether. In this case, I just memorized the alternate sound. It is represented with a slash symbol like g/k meaning that ‘g’ is the root letter sound and ‘k’ is the new letter sound that was created with the extra line. Thus the variation letter sound is ‘k’. Let’s get started!

Consonants:

ㄱ = gun = g

ㅋ= g/k = k

ㄴ= nose = n

ㄷ= door = d

ㅌ= d/t = t

ㄹ = lazy river = lr combo sound

ㅁ = mouth = m

ㅂ = bucket = b

ㅍ = b/p = p

ㅅ = split = s

ㅇ = sing sing market by my old apartment = ng or a silent placeholder

ㅈ= janky chair (low quality folding chair) = j

ㅊ= janky chair  = ch

ㅎ = hat = h

 

Vowels:

ㅏ = ahh (tonsils at the dentist) = ah

ㅑ=  ah/yah = yah

ㅐ= air (gemini air sign) = ai

ㅒ = ai/ yai = yai

ㅓ= ought = ou

ㅕ= ou/yau = yau

ㅔ = what came first the chicken or the egg  (egg)= ehh

ㅖ= ehh/yehh = yehh

ㅗ = toe  = oe

ㅛ = oe/yoe= yoe

ㅜ= booty  = ooh

ㅠ = ooh/yooh = yooh

ㅡ = brook = oooh

ㅣ= tree = ee

I will be happy if one of these mnemonic devices helped anyone save a few minutes while learning Hangul. Use what you need and get rid of the rest; Mnemonic devices are best when individualized. Good luck with your studies! 화이팅!