Step 2 · Vowels
Three marks, and everything else is arithmetic
The consonants were drawn from the body. The vowels were drawn from the world: a dot for the sun in the sky, a flat line for the ground, an upright line for a standing person.
The dot is written as a short stroke in modern type. The letter it once was — ㆍ, called 아래아 — dropped out of modern Korean.
Where the dot goes decides the sound
Put the dot above or to the right and you get a bright, open vowel. Put it below or to the left and you get a dark, closed one. That pairing repeats all through Korean.
Bright dot above or to the right
Dark dot below or to the left
A second dot adds a y in front — ㅏ becomes ㅑ, ㅗ becomes ㅛ. That one rule covers four of the ten letters.
One movement, ten letters
Consonants are told apart by where the mouth closes. Vowels close nowhere — what changes is how far it is open. Say the ten in their normal order, 아 야 어 여 오 요 우 유 으 이, and the opening narrows a step at a time: widest at 아, almost shut at 이. The four letters with a y are said with the same mouth as the letter they were built on, so the ten come down in pairs — five steps, not ten.
ㅏ [a] · like the a in “father”
Tap a letter to hear it and see the mouth.
The ten vowels
The order is 아 야 어 여 오 요 우 유 으 이. It is the order in every dictionary, on every keyboard and on the chart on every Korean classroom wall — and it is the order your mouth closes in.
Each row is a pair: the second letter is the first with a y in front, and both are said with the same mouth.
How each one was built
Now write it yourself
Trace over the grey letter with your finger or the mouse. Nothing is marked — this is the paper, not the test.