The Rest of the Korean Vowels: One Extra Stroke Adds a 'Y' (갸 냐 댜)

Last lesson you read the whole 가나다 chart — 14 consonants across five vowels. You’re most of the way there. This lesson finishes the basic vowels: one leftover single vowel (ㅡ), and then a neat trick that unlocks four more at once.

Here’s the good part: you’re not learning four new shapes. You’re learning one rule — add a stroke, add a y — and applying it to vowels you already know.

🎧 Still taught by ear. Tap the 🔊 and copy the sound. The English spellings are a rough guide, not the truth. Open this where you can listen.

First, the one vowel English doesn’t have: ㅡ

Back in the 가나다 chart you learned ㅏ ㅓ ㅗ ㅜ ㅣ. There’s one more plain vowel to complete the set — ㅡ — and it’s the one sound with no clean English match, so it’s worth a moment on its own.

The trap: its usual English spelling is “eu,” which tempts you to say “you” — wrong. There’s no y, and no rounding (your lips don’t push forward into an “O” the way they do for ㅜ / “oo”). Think of the small grunt you make lifting something heavy, with your lips pulled sideways. Tap it a few times; it’ll click faster by ear than by description.

Now hear it attach to consonants you already read — same chart, new column:

That’s your sixth and last plain vowel. Now the fun rule.

The rule: one extra stroke = a “y” in front

Look what happens when you add a second short stroke to a vowel you know:

ㅏ → ㅑ   ·   ㅓ → ㅕ   ·   ㅗ → ㅛ   ·   ㅜ → ㅠ

The sound doesn’t change into something new — it just grows a y in front. Hear the pairs:

That’s the whole lesson: ㅏ→ㅑ, ㅓ→ㅕ, ㅗ→ㅛ, ㅜ→ㅠ. Four “y” vowels, and you already knew the sounds hiding inside them.

The chart, “y” version — 14 consonants × 4 vowels

Same as before: read row by row, tap each block, say it aloud. Do a couple of rows now, come back for the rest. Every block is just a consonant you know plus a y vowel.

One honest note: some of these (댜, 뱌, 퍄…) are rare in real words — you’ll almost never read them. Don’t drill them hard; the point is the pattern, so that when you do meet 겨 or 요 in a real word, it’s instant.

Read real words — using ㅡ and the “y” vowels

Every block here comes from a chart you’ve now read. Sound each out before you tap:

Every one decoded from the chart — no shapes memorized, just read. That’s the whole vowel set now under your belt.

Check yourself

Five quick checks, easy to harder. Answer out loud before you tap — that’s what makes it stick.

Q1 — read it. Sound out this word: 요리 (hint: what you do in a kitchen).

answer

yo-ri — cooking. 요 (ㅇ + ㅛ = “yo”) + 리 (ㄹ + ㅣ). 요리🔊

Q2 — spot the difference. These two blocks differ by exactly one stroke. Tap each, then “이어서 듣기” — which one has the y?

answer

요 has the y (ㅗ→ㅛ, “oh”→“yo”); 오 is the plain “oh.” One extra stroke is the whole difference — in sound and in writing. Same pair hides in 우/유, 아/야, 어/여.

Q3 — build it yourself. You know ㅜ says “oo.” Add one stroke to make the “y” version. What’s the letter, and what does it sound like?

answer

ㅜ → ㅠ, and it says “yu” (like “you”). You just made a vowel from the rule instead of memorizing it. Hear it in a word: 우유🔊 (milk = 우 + 유 — the plain one, then the “y” one, back to back).

Q4 — the tricky one. Is this the “you” sound, or the flat vowel English doesn’t have? 으🔊

answer

The flat ㅡ — lips spread, no y, no rounding. “eu” is just its spelling; it is not said like “you.” Quick contrast — tap all three and feel your lips: 으🔊 (flat) → 우🔊 (rounded “oo”) → 유🔊 (“yu”). Only ㅡ keeps your lips spread.

Q5 — from last lesson. Back in the 가나다 chart, two blocks looked alike but one had a puff of air. Tap each and say which is the “airy” one: 자 or 차?

answer

차 has the puff of air (ㅊ); 자 doesn’t (ㅈ). Hold your hand up — air on 차 only. Still got it? Good — that carries into every chart from here.

Before you go

• I can make ㅡ — lips spread, flat, no “y” and no rounding
• I know one extra stroke adds a “y”: ㅏ→ㅑ, ㅓ→ㅕ, ㅗ→ㅛ, ㅜ→ㅠ
• I read 우유, 여자, 야구 as real words off the chart

📌 Pocket cheat sheet: ㅡ (flat “eu”) · ㅑ ya · ㅕ yeo · ㅛ yo · ㅠ yu — a “y” version of ㅏ ㅓ ㅗ ㅜ.

You’ve now got every plain and “y” vowel in Korean. Next, the last group: the combined vowels (ㅐ ㅔ ㅘ ㅝ), where two vowels blend into one sound — and the sharp tense consonants (ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ). After that, the whole chart is yours.