Basic Vowels

Before we discuss compound vowels, here's a list all the vowels that you've seen so far, along with their "y-" counterparts. We've added two more of the basic vowels (they're highlighted in yellow). Click the Korean vowel to hear it pronounced.

Korean Romanized Pronounced a as in father eo as in lawn o as in go u as in sue ae as in pan e as in ten eu as in put i as in meet

Korean Romanized Pronounced ya as in Yacht yeo as in yawn yo as in yo-yo yu as in you yae as in yam ye as in yes

Note: the distinction in pronunciation between and is being lost in casual Korean speech among people who are under age 40.

The Diphthong Table

Korean Romanized Pronounced wi as in we ui see note wa as in watt weo as in wall wae as in wear oe as in wet we as in wet

Here is the table of the remaining diphthongs. Due to the loss of distinction between the vowel and , the last three rows are all pronounced pretty much the same in standard Korean speech.