Korean Syllable

What is syllable?

It's an individual sound in words.
The way you break down syllables in English is different from what you would do it in Korean since Korean language has syallable rules.

Koreann syllabes are made of 2 kinds of forms.
Form 1. consonant + vowel
Form 2. consonant + vowel + consonant

Korean syllables always start with a consonant and then a vowel. If you add another consonant after the vowel like the Form 2, I refer to the consonant as the last consonant.

Vowel Position

Where you write your vowels can be 3 different ways depending on which vowel it is.
Think of the space where you write a syllable in a box.
Write the consonant first and then vowels go in. Remember?

Positions could be either side (s), bottom (b) or middle (m) which you saw in the table on the alphabet page. Simply 'side' means that you write the vowel next to consonant, 'bottom' means you write underneath and 'middle' means the combination of bottom and the side.
I say 'bottom and the side' because you write bottom first and then side.

Then where does the last consonant go?
You always write it underneath of everything (first consonant and vowel)!

I will show you some examples in pictures to make things clear :)

Example 1

Here is a word meaning 'bag' that contains 2 syllables.
The first syllable is formed with consonant + vowel.
The second syllable is formed with consonant + vowel + consonant.
The vowels in both syllalbes are in the 'side' position.

Example 2

Here is the second word example meaning 'dolphin' that contains 3 syllables.
The first syllable is formed with consonant + vowel + consonant and the vowel position is "bottom".
The second/third syllables are formed with consonant + vowel and the second vowel position is "bottom" and the third vowel is "side".

Example 3

Here is the third word example meaning 'movie' that contains 2 syllables.
The first syllable is formed with consonant + vowel + consonant
and the vowel position is 'side'.
The second syllable is formed with consonant + vowel
and the vowel position is 'middle' (combination of bottom and side).