Learn Korean – Lesson 1.02: The Vowel 아

In Lesson 1.01, we have learned about the vowel 이 which sounds as “i” as in beet.
In this lesson, we will learn about a very similarly-looking vowel, the vowel 아, which sounds as “ah” as in swan.

Hangeul	아
Phonetic Symbol	[ a ]	*from the International Phonetic Alphabet)
Romanization	a	*from the Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 2000)

As you can see, this vowel looks very similar to the vowel 이, but note the difference on the right side of the vertical line in 아. It has a small horizontal dash attached to it.
Do your best to be familiar with this vowel, memorize its appearance, so that you will be able to combine it with the other vowels that we will be studying next time.
Now, for you to get familiar with the vowel 아, we will use it the way we used the vowel 이 previously. We will start by using it as a substitute for the sound /a/ in English words.

h아rd
m아d
sm아rt
s아l아d
sw아rm이ng
m아ttress

Are you now familiar with the vowel아? Let’s take it to the next level by using it in Korean words this time.

아niyo	No (informal)
아niya	(It's) not.
Orun-jjok uro doll아 ka-jusaeyo.	Turn right (, please).

(… I'll be posting more examples here in the future when I find more)
Korean Lesson 1.01 << | >> Korean Lesson 1.03 More Korean Lessons