# Talking About Vowels



## slowlikemolasses

When spelling out a word, how can the speaker emphasize a certain vowel? In English this can be done, for example, by used the word _apple_ when emphasizing an _a_; how about in Korean?


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## Park Chung-hee

When spelling out a word, how can the speaker emphasize a certain vowel? In English this can be done, for example, by used the word _apple when emphasizing an a; how about in Korean?

_Hi there!

Korean really has no emphasis on vowels. I think the mean by "emphasized vowels" are actually one of the consonants like ㅃ,ㅉ,ㄸ,ㄲ,ㅆ. But these are consonants not vowels.
I really do not know what kind of vowels of Korean have emphasis. Unlike English, you really do not have to give emphasis on Korean.


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## slowlikemolasses

How do you differentiate between ㅛ and ㅕ?


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## Park Chung-hee

ㅛ sounds like 'yo'; ㅕ sounds like 'yeo'


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## slowlikemolasses

How do you differentiate between ㅛ and ㅕ when verbally spelling a word?


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## Park Chung-hee

If you meant by grammatically, then I really need some time to get clear and straight answer for it.
If you meant by pronunciation, then I really need to record my voice or make a video explaining it.
The parts you are asking is quite complex. Please be more specific on what you are asking.


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## meesterslager

The difference between 오 and 어, is that the first is a short " o"  sound  like in while the latter is more of a prolongued o like "ooh" from  pronouncing the english alphabet but with a little softer intonation.  also the first is more pronounced with your throath whith an open mouth.  the latter is less created with your throath and requires an o shaped  mouth.

similar is with the 요 and 여 sound its the similar sound with an added y.  so yo and yoh. remember that the latter sound more like the english  expression "yo" with a softer intonation on the "o"  that in the english  expression, the korean "yo"  is a short and hard "o"

I unfortunatly counld not come up with an english wordt that properly pronounces this hard and short korean 오.

I hope this explanation somewhat helps, I myself also still have  problems with proper pronounciation during pronounciation class. but for  me the ㅍ ㅂ ㅃ, ㅅㅆ and ㄱ,ㅋ,ㄲ. are a real trouble because I have a hard  time hearing the difference when koreans pronounce them. let stand  pronounce them myself.

since it sounds like your doing selfstudy let me hint u on one weird  pronounciation rule. then a ㅅ and l are combined like the word  신문(newspaper) is not pronounces as sinmun/sinmoen but as  shinmun/shinmoen. while with other combinations of vowels and ㅅ the h is  usually not there (correct me if I am wrong)


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## slowlikemolasses

> When spelling out a word, how can the speaker emphasize a certain vowel? In English this can be done, for example, by used the word apple when emphasizing an a; how about in Korean?



레몬 할때 레

I was looking for something like the example above.


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## meesterslager

Like Chung-Hee I have a hard time understanding what u mean,

do u mean somethat like

a from apple, b from bear, c from cup, d from drink??

because when I put your example into englsih script its something like " lemon halea le"  I dont understand the ephasis in this example because there is no a from apple in there.


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## napron

Are you talking about when people ask for spelling clarification like "is that 'a' as in apple or 'e' as in egg?" I don't know if it's done for the basic vowels like ㅏ,ㅑ, etc, but for distinguishing between 레 and 래 you can say like 'uh ee' or 'ah ee'.


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## Rance

We don't normally break down by vowels or consonants but by syllable.
Just like the example you gave us "레몬 할때 레"

직원: 성함이?
예자 : 예자입니다.
직원: 애자요?
예자: 아니요. '예술'할때 '예'자에 '자석'할때 '자' 요.

If you want to differentiate ㅕ vs ㅛ, keep in mind that we never use vowel alone but it is always accompanied by ㅇ.
So you are actually comparing 여 vs 요. 
You can use words that contain either 여 or 요 to distinguish them.
Example) 여자할때 여, 요술할때 요


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