Compound Vowels 1

Korean Alphabet 2

Course 2 · Chapter 3 · Compound Vowels 1

ㅐ ㅔ — Two Vowels Built From Two

The consonants are finished. Now come the compound vowels: 11 extra vowel letters made by combining basic vowels. Wikipedia's Hangul page lists them as ㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅢ. This chapter takes the two most common, ㅐ and ㅔ. They are easy to write and a little hard to tell apart by ear, and the reason is worth knowing.

Your Two Letters — ㅐ ㅔ

ㅐ

roughly like the "e" in bed

Memory hook: ㅏ plus ㅣ: the "a" bar with a second bar standing beside it. The short tick sits between the two bars.

ㅔ

roughly like the "e" in bed, or in get

Memory hook: ㅓ plus ㅣ: the "eo" bar with a second bar beside it. The short tick sits on the outside left.

Built From Letters You Know

ㅐ = ㅏ + ㅣ and ㅔ = ㅓ + ㅣ. Wikipedia's Hangul page says the compound vowels result from "modifications and combinations" of the basic ones, and that in Middle Korean "ㅐ was once pronounced as a diphthong of the two letters that graphically compose it: ㅏ and ㅣ".
Wikipedia's Korean phonology page explains that Middle Korean had a set of diphthongs ending in the sound i, which later "monophthongized into modern-day front vowels": /aj/ became /ɛ/ (written ㅐ) and /əj/ became /e/ (written ㅔ). "This is the reason why the hangul letters ㅐ, ㅔ, ㅚ etc. are represented as back vowels plus i."
The block rule is the one you know: both letters have a long vertical stroke, so they sit to the right of the initial consonant (Hangul page).

Why They Sound Alike Now

Korean phonology says: "The distinction between /e/ and /ɛ/ is lost in South Korean dialects—both are most commonly realized as [e̞], but some older speakers still retain the difference." That is the vowel of ㅔ (/e/) and of ㅐ (/ɛ/). It adds that "as for North Korean, some works report the distinction to be robust", although one study it cites found even younger speakers there produced it inconsistently. For you, the practical result is that most South Korean speakers pronounce ㅐ and ㅔ the same, so the spelling of a word has to be learned, as with English there and their.

Letter	Romanisation	Older sound (IPA)	Most South Korean speakers
ㅐ	ae	/ɛ/	[e̞]
ㅔ	e	/e/	[e̞]

The Block Table

	ㄱ g	ㄴ n	ㅁ m	ㅂ b	ㅅ s	ㅇ ·	ㅎ h
ㅐ ae	개 gae	내 nae	매 mae	배 bae	새 sae	애 ae	해 hae
ㅔ e	게 ge	네 ne	메 me	베 be	세 se	에 e	헤 he

Each row reads like a row you already know. The ㅇ column is the silent placeholder from Chapter 1 of Korean Alphabet 1: 애 and 에 are just the vowels.

Look-Alike Warnings

ㅐ and ㅔ. Look for the short tick. In ㅐ it sits between the two bars; in ㅔ it sits on the outside left.
ㅏ and ㅐ. ㅐ has a second bar. ㅓ and ㅔ. The same.
ㅐ and ㅒ, ㅔ and ㅖ. The next chapter adds a second tick to make these y-versions.

Read It — First Words With ㅐ and ㅔ

Only letters you know. Say each word aloud; the vowels will sound close to each other.

#	Word	Romanisation	English	Note
1	개	gae	dog	a one-block word; see the box
2	게	ge	crab	written differently from 개 but close in sound
3	새	sae	bird	see the box
4	네	ne	yes	a common answer
5	새우	sae-u	shrimp	see the box
6	카메라	ka-me-ra	camera	a word borrowed from English
7	케이크	ke-i-keu	cake	a word borrowed from English
8	메뉴	me-nyu	menu	a word borrowed from English

Note that 메뉴 contains ㅠ, a y-vowel from Korean Alphabet 1.

Not Yet Verified The list of compound vowels, the building of ㅐ from ㅏ and ㅣ, the Middle Korean history, the block rule, and the pronunciation facts (/ɛ/ and /e/ merged into [e̞] in South Korean dialects, some older speakers keeping the difference, the North Korean report) come from Wikipedia's "Hangul" and "Korean phonology" pages. I did not run a web search for this chapter: the meanings of 개, 게, 새, 네, 새우, 카메라, 케이크 and 메뉴, and the loanword remarks, are from my own knowledge, so check them in a dictionary. The English comparisons ("bed", "get"), the claim that most speakers will not hear a difference in your own speech, the English comparison to there and their, and the memory hooks are my own wording. I have not checked stroke order and there is no recording.

Sources for This Chapter Wikipedia, "Hangul" (vowel list, block rules, Middle Korean) and "Korean phonology" (vowels, the loss of the /e/–/ɛ/ distinction).

Try It Yourself — 연습

Say each answer out loud first, then click to check.

1. Read these blocks aloud: 개 · 네 · 해 · 세 · 매 · 베

Show answer

gae · ne · hae · se · mae · be

2. Which two letters make up ㅐ, and which two make up ㅔ?

Show answer

ㅐ = ㅏ + ㅣ; ㅔ = ㅓ + ㅣ.

3. Read these words: 새 · 새우 · 카메라 · 케이크

Show answer

sae (bird) · sae-u (shrimp) · ka-me-ra (camera) · ke-i-keu (cake)

4. Write in Hangul: ne · gae · me-nyu

Show answer

네 · 개 · 메뉴

5. How do most South Korean speakers pronounce ㅐ and ㅔ, according to the Korean phonology page, and why does that matter for spelling?

Show answer

Both are most commonly realised as [e̞], although some older speakers keep the difference. Because they sound alike, the spelling of each word has to be learned.

6. Where does the short tick sit in ㅐ, and where in ㅔ?

Show answer

In ㅐ it sits between the two bars; in ㅔ it sits on the outside left.

Coming Up in Chapter 4 Three more compound vowels: ㅒ and ㅖ, the y-versions of ㅐ and ㅔ, and ㅢ, the vowel with its own rule for where the consonant goes.