Korean Lesson 02: Character Stacking
So, do you remember what this character sounds like, and how to type it?
ㅁ
It's 'm' and you type it by pressing 'a'.
What character does typing 's' make?
ㄴ
This sounds just like an 'n'. So, m and n are right next to each other on the keyboard! Smart, huh? Hopefully they will be easy to remember.
By the way, generally, the left-hand side of the keyboard is for consonants, and the right-hand side for vowels (you know, a, e, i, o , u, are vowels and sometimes y!). This makes typing much easier on the fingers than our english qwerty keyboard.
On the home row, vowels start at the key 'h'.
ㅗ
This generally sounds like an o, like in ocean, opal, orange, lone, moan, etc.
Look at this other character.
ㅜ
This generally sounds like a u, or double o, like in moon, book, dune.
They look so similar! How can you ever keep them straight in your head?
Well, if you think about how they look, both of them start with the same baseline, a horizontal line kinda like this: ㅡ
In ㅗ the line is going up, over the baseline. o, over.
In ㅜ the line is going down, under the baseline. u, under.
Well, it's kinda lame, but I hope it helps.
Now we have two consonants and a vowel! We can start making syllables. Type 'ahs'
몬
You've made the sound 'mon'.
Well, that has no meaning by itself really, does it? Let's reverse it.
놈
That's the sound 'nom'.
Also, do you see how the first character you type goes on top, and then the vowel goes in the middle, with the last character on the bottom? Korean words read left to right and top to bottom.
So now you can type nom nom nom, an internet meme of some sort, at people.
But what about the 'om' that always starts the nomming? Trying to type the two characters alone results in fail.
ㅗㅁ
They simply won't stack.
That's because you must always start each syllable with a consonant from the left-hand side of your keyboard. You just have to, no way around it. So what can we use...?
There is a character that has no sound, one that can be used as a placeholder when put at the start of a syllable.
Type 'd'.
ㅇ
Looks like the letter 'o' doesn't it?
It's not! Don't get it confused. Think of it, perhaps, as a zero, for having no sound.
To make 'om' sound, you'll just type 'dha' to get:
옴
That ㅇ at the top is simply ignored when sounding it out, and so now you can type om nom nom nom!
옴 놈놈놈~
What happens when you reverse the 'om' into 'mo'?
몽
Hold it, hold it! That ㅇ actually happens to have a sound when you place it at the end of a syllable! It sounds like 'ng' like ... the end part of ending.
So, we really just wrote 'mong'.
If you wanted to write 'mo' you would simply just write m and o
모
You don't need a placeholder to finish a syllable; you only need it to start a syllable with a vowel.
That's enough for now, right?
ㅁ
It's 'm' and you type it by pressing 'a'.
What character does typing 's' make?
ㄴ
This sounds just like an 'n'. So, m and n are right next to each other on the keyboard! Smart, huh? Hopefully they will be easy to remember.
By the way, generally, the left-hand side of the keyboard is for consonants, and the right-hand side for vowels (you know, a, e, i, o , u, are vowels and sometimes y!). This makes typing much easier on the fingers than our english qwerty keyboard.
On the home row, vowels start at the key 'h'.
ㅗ
This generally sounds like an o, like in ocean, opal, orange, lone, moan, etc.
Look at this other character.
ㅜ
This generally sounds like a u, or double o, like in moon, book, dune.
They look so similar! How can you ever keep them straight in your head?
Well, if you think about how they look, both of them start with the same baseline, a horizontal line kinda like this: ㅡ
In ㅗ the line is going up, over the baseline. o, over.
In ㅜ the line is going down, under the baseline. u, under.
Well, it's kinda lame, but I hope it helps.
Now we have two consonants and a vowel! We can start making syllables. Type 'ahs'
몬
You've made the sound 'mon'.
Well, that has no meaning by itself really, does it? Let's reverse it.
놈
That's the sound 'nom'.
Also, do you see how the first character you type goes on top, and then the vowel goes in the middle, with the last character on the bottom? Korean words read left to right and top to bottom.
So now you can type nom nom nom, an internet meme of some sort, at people.
But what about the 'om' that always starts the nomming? Trying to type the two characters alone results in fail.
ㅗㅁ
They simply won't stack.
That's because you must always start each syllable with a consonant from the left-hand side of your keyboard. You just have to, no way around it. So what can we use...?
There is a character that has no sound, one that can be used as a placeholder when put at the start of a syllable.
Type 'd'.
ㅇ
Looks like the letter 'o' doesn't it?
It's not! Don't get it confused. Think of it, perhaps, as a zero, for having no sound.
To make 'om' sound, you'll just type 'dha' to get:
옴
That ㅇ at the top is simply ignored when sounding it out, and so now you can type om nom nom nom!
옴 놈놈놈~
What happens when you reverse the 'om' into 'mo'?
몽
Hold it, hold it! That ㅇ actually happens to have a sound when you place it at the end of a syllable! It sounds like 'ng' like ... the end part of ending.
So, we really just wrote 'mong'.
If you wanted to write 'mo' you would simply just write m and o
모
You don't need a placeholder to finish a syllable; you only need it to start a syllable with a vowel.
That's enough for now, right?
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