Compound Vowels
Learn compound vowels: ㅐ, ㅔ, ㅘ, ㅙ, ㅚ, ㅝ, ㅞ, ㅟ, ㅢ, ㅑ, ㅕ, ㅛ, ㅠ
Compound vowels are built by combining the basic vowels you learned in Lesson 1-1. ㅑ, ㅕ, ㅛ, ㅠ are simply ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅗ, ㅜ with an extra short stroke that adds a 'y' sound at the front — so ㅑ is 'ya', ㅕ is 'yeo', and so on. The wider compounds like ㅘ, ㅝ, ㅚ, ㅟ combine two simple vowels into a true diphthong.
The most confusing pair for beginners is ㅐ vs ㅔ. Historically these were two different sounds, but in modern Seoul Korean they have merged into a single sound roughly like English 'eh'. You will still see both spellings in different words (애 vs 에), but you do not need to worry about distinguishing them in pronunciation. Practice reading words that use the compounds you have already learned in syllable blocks — vowels become real as soon as you see them inside actual Korean words rather than in isolation.
Y-vowels: Adding a 'y' sound
Adding an extra stroke to basic vowels creates 'y-' versions: ㅏ→ㅑ (a→ya), ㅓ→ㅕ (eo→yeo), ㅗ→ㅛ (o→yo), ㅜ→ㅠ (u→yu). The pattern is simple: one extra stroke = add 'y'.
Cultural & Language Note
The merger of ㅐ and ㅔ is a sound change that happened within living memory. Older Koreans, especially outside Seoul, may still distinguish them, and the spelling difference is preserved because it marks different words: 개 (dog) versus 게 (crab). Koreans themselves sometimes clarify over the phone by saying 'ㅏ 개' or 'ㅓ 게' — spelling out which vowel they mean, much the way English speakers say 'B for Bravo'.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Learners often assume ㅚ and ㅙ and ㅞ must sound different because they are written differently. In modern standard Korean they are all pronounced essentially the same, roughly 'we'. Do not waste practice time trying to separate them — just memorise which spelling each word takes. The mistake that does matter is reading ㅢ as a single vowel; in 의사 (doctor) it is 'ui', but as a possessive particle 의 is pronounced 'e', and in non-initial position it is often just 'i'.