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Korean Vs English

This document compares and contrasts the Korean and English languages. It notes that Korean (called Hangeul) has an alphabet consisting of 24 letters made of 10 vowels and 14 consonants that are written in blocks, while English uses the Latin alphabet of 26 letters. Pronunciation differs between the languages, with some English consonant sounds not existing in Korean. Additionally, Korean sentence structure follows a subject-object-verb format whereas English is subject-verb-object. While learning a new language can seem difficult, the document encourages pushing past limits and embracing new knowledge through language learning.

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nellyvette
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416 views2 pages

Korean Vs English

This document compares and contrasts the Korean and English languages. It notes that Korean (called Hangeul) has an alphabet consisting of 24 letters made of 10 vowels and 14 consonants that are written in blocks, while English uses the Latin alphabet of 26 letters. Pronunciation differs between the languages, with some English consonant sounds not existing in Korean. Additionally, Korean sentence structure follows a subject-object-verb format whereas English is subject-verb-object. While learning a new language can seem difficult, the document encourages pushing past limits and embracing new knowledge through language learning.

Uploaded by

nellyvette
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Nellyvette Calo Estrada

INGL 3104

Final

February 9, 2015.

Can You Understand Me?

Have you ever had the curiosity of learning a completely different language? We are

surrounded by many people, which implicates a lot of different cultures and a lot of different

languages. Just the thought of having so many different words for just one thing is incredible.

We are more familiar with languages like English, Spanish, and French, but how about Asian

languages? Some people just think that all Asians use Mandarin, better known as Chinese, but

there a lot more languages like Japanese, Mongolian, and Tagalog, among others. But let’s just

focus on Korean and English. There are some main differences between these two languages.

The first main difference is their alphabet. The English alphabet is formed by 26 letters

that consist of 5 vowels and 21 consonants. Its writing style is Latin, therefore it is written in a

horizontal way. The Korean alphabet is called Hangeul. It is made of 24 letters that consist of 10

vowels and 14 consonants. The letters are grouped into blocks, such as 한 han. Hangeul can be

written horizontally or vertically, although the horizontal way is more common. Because of this,

Koreans have no particular difficulties with the English writing style.

Another mayor difference between these two languages is the sounds in their

pronunciation. Several English consonant sounds do not exist in Korean. Sounds such as /v/, /f/,

and /z/, are replaced with the sounds /b/, /p/, and /s/, respectively. For example, the /f/ sound in

the word phone would be changed to pone. Also, some letters in Hangeul change their
pronunciation when they are positioned at the end of a word, such as (ㄱ) g for k, (ㄷ) d for t, and

(ㅂ) b for p. There is also a consonant that has no sound, except when positioned at the end. It

goes from no sound (ㅇ) to /ng/. Some vowels consist of two letters, but one of them is not

pronounced. For instance, the vowel ㅓ eo is pronounced o. It sounds complicated, but with

practice it becomes easy.

Last, we have the sentence structure. When we write in English, the basic structure of a

sentence is subject + verb + object. For example, we say “I like that car”. In Hangeul, this

structure would be subject + object + verb. Therefore, they would say, “I that car like”. They use

a lot the subject + verb structure. One big difference between Korean and English is that the verb

is placed at the end of the sentence in Korean, whereas in English it is somewhere in the middle.

Koreans say, “You need to listen until the end of the sentence.” In other words, you never know

the speaker’s complete idea unless you listen to the whole sentence.

There are many differences between Korean and English. They have completely different

alphabets, sounds, and sentence structure. It may seem really hard to learn a different language

from yours, but if you put your heart into it, it is not impossible. Learning new things is never a

bad thing: I have learned that you should crave for more knowledge and always have your mind

open to new things. Being able to communicate with others through a different language is a

wonderful experience. Can you understand me? Never put limits to your learning.

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