Learning Korean isn’t easy, as it uses a writing system that’s unfamiliar to most people, sentence structures that can feel unexpected, and features countless verb endings, complex grammatical rules, and different levels of formality. It\u2019s completely normal to feel overwhelmed, and that’s what happened to me too. However, this process can become more fun by studying Korean grammar and vocabulary through the lyrics of K-Pop songs. By analyzing song lyrics, soon you’ll see patterns starting to repeat, grammar rules becoming recognizable, and terms that will stick as you tie them to the music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m not at all fluent in Korean, but I found it easier and more enjoyable to study by breaking down the grammar in the lyrics of the songs of my favorite group, Loona. In my learning process, I’m going through all their songs one by one, studying in detail every aspect of the grammar and doing my best to memorize terms and rules, and this helped me a lot. So, I’ll share with you the notes I’ve written in a series of articles, hoping that this can help you too. Again, I’m still learning and I have a long way to go before being fluent, so I might make some mistakes, but I always do my best to double and triple check everything. If you find any mistakes, please contact me<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another important note: the articles are written assuming you at least know how to read Korean. If you don’t, it’s actually pretty easy to learn, and you can start by reading the explanation below. In any case, I suggest getting used to some very basic Korean grammar before diving into the lyrics breakdown. It’s also necessary to note that song lyrics don’t always follow the grammar you would find in textbooks, but are closer to spoken and informal Korean, where verbs, pronouns, and particles might be omitted, words might be in a different order than what you would expect, and contractions are common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The analysis of the songs will proceed in chronological order, and new songs will be added over time. There won’t be a regular post schedule, so check out this page every once in a while, or follow our Instagram<\/a> for updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You don’t even know who Loona is? Don’t worry, you can learn from these analyses anyway, but if you want an introduction to this group, start here<\/a>, and check out related pages to learn about more K-Pop artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n HeeJin – ViViD<\/a> Here’s also a breakdown of Loona’s name in Korean, \uc774\ub2ec\uc758 \uc18c\ub140.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \uc774\ub2ec\uc758 \uc18c\ub140<\/strong> = This month’s girl<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taking the first letter of every syllable we get: \u3147\u3137\u3147\u3145\u3134. We now reorder the letters as: \u3134\u3147\u3147\u3137\u3145. Let’s turn \u3137 into \u03a0, and \u3145 into \u0394, and we get: LOO\u03a0\u0394, which can be read as Loona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to this, \ub2ec also means “Moon”, while Loona is pronouned the same as “Luna”, which means “Moon” in languages such as Latin, Italian, and Spanish. For this reason, the Moon is a symbol closely associated with Loona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reading Korean is actually much easier than it might seem, as the Korean writing system, or Hangul, is very easy to learn and understand. Down here is a very quick breakdown of how to read Korean and some basic rules to know. The pronounciations provided are the transliterations used in the Revised Romanization of Korean system, and I added some notes comparing the sounds to English for more clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Hangul system is based on letters which come together to form syllable blocks. Every syllable always contains a consonant and a vowel, and might sometimes also include a third and fourth consonant. To form syllables, the letters come together depending on their shape. Horizontal vowels (e.g. \u3157, \u315c, \u3161) go under the consonant (e.g. \u3134 + \u3157 = \ub178), while vertical vowels (e.g. \u314f, \u3153, \u3163) go to the right of the consonant (e.g. \u3134 + \u314f = \ub098). Additional consonants go under the block formed by the first two letters (e.g. \u3141 + \u314f + \u3139 = \ub9d0).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some consonants are pronounced differently depending on whether they’re positioned at the start or the end of the syllable. Five consonants can also become doubled, forming stronger versions of their basic counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now just combine these sounds to create syllables, for example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u3131 (g) + \u314f (a) = \uac00 (ga), \u201cgo\u201d These are the basic rules, there are a few more complexities involving consonant clusters and how letters interact with each other, but if you’re a beginner you don’t need to learn these now. The most important thing to know is that when a syllable ending in a consonant is followed by a vowel (a syllable starting with the silent \u3147), the word is pronounced with the consonant sound moving to the second syllable. This means that the final consonant of the first syllable it’s pronounced as if it were the initial consonant of the second syllable, and so it uses its initial position pronounciation, for example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \uba39\uc5b4 (mogeo) “to eat” is pronounced as “\uba38\uac70” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Learning Korean isn’t easy, as it uses a writing system that’s unfamiliar to most people, sentence structures that can feel unexpected, and features countless verb endings, complex grammatical rules, and different levels of formality. It\u2019s completely normal to feel overwhelmed, and that’s what happened to me too. However, this process can become more fun by studying Korean grammar and vocabulary through the lyrics of K-Pop songs. By analyzing song lyrics, soon you’ll see patterns starting to repeat, grammar rules becoming recognizable, and terms that will stick as you tie them to the music. I’m not at all fluent in Korean, but I found it easier and more enjoyable to study by breaking down the grammar in the lyrics of the songs of my favorite group, Loona. In my learning process, I’m going through all their songs one by one, studying in detail every aspect of the grammar and doing my best to memorize terms and rules, and this helped me a lot. So, I’ll share with you the notes I’ve written in a series of articles, hoping that this can help you too. Again, I’m still learning and I have a long way to go before being fluent, so I might make some mistakes, but I always do my best to double and triple check everything. If you find any mistakes, please contact me. Another important note: the articles are written assuming you at least know how to read Korean. If you don’t, it’s actually pretty easy to learn, and you can start by reading the explanation below. In any case, I suggest getting used to some very basic Korean grammar before diving into the lyrics breakdown. It’s also necessary to note that song lyrics don’t always follow the grammar you would find in textbooks, but are closer to spoken and informal Korean, where verbs, pronouns, and particles might be omitted, words might be in a different order than what you would expect, and contractions are common. The analysis of the songs will proceed in chronological order, and new songs will be added over time. There won’t be a regular post schedule, so check out this page every once in a while, or follow our Instagram for updates. You don’t even know who Loona is? Don’t worry, you can learn from these analyses anyway, but if you want an introduction to this group, start here, and check out related pages to learn about more K-Pop artists. Learn Korean with Loona songs HeeJin – ViViDHyunJin – Around YouHeeJin, HyunJin – I\u2019ll Be ThereHaSeul – Let Me InHeeJin, HyunJin, HaSeul – The CarolYeoJin – Kiss LaterHeeJin, HyunJin – My Sunday & HaSeul, YeoJin – My MelodyLoona 1\/3 – Love & LiveLoona 1\/3 – You and Me TogetherLoona 1\/3 – Fairy TaleLoona 1\/3 – Valentine GirlViVi feat. HaSeul – Everyday I Love You & ViVi feat. JinSoul – Everyday I Need YouLoona 1\/3 \u2013 SonatineLoona 1\/3 \u2013 Rain 51db NEW! Here’s also a breakdown of Loona’s name in Korean, \uc774\ub2ec\uc758 \uc18c\ub140. \uc774\ub2ec\uc758 \uc18c\ub140 = This month’s girl Taking the first letter of every syllable we get: \u3147\u3137\u3147\u3145\u3134. We now reorder the letters as: \u3134\u3147\u3147\u3137\u3145. Let’s turn \u3137 into \u03a0, and \u3145 into \u0394, and we get: LOO\u03a0\u0394, which can be read as Loona. In addition to this, \ub2ec also means “Moon”, while Loona is pronouned the same as “Luna”, which means “Moon” in languages such as Latin, Italian, and Spanish. For this reason, the Moon is a symbol closely associated with Loona. A quick explanation of Hangul, the Korean writing system Reading Korean is actually much easier than it might seem, as the Korean writing system, or Hangul, is very easy to learn and understand. Down here is a very quick breakdown of how to read Korean and some basic rules to know. The pronounciations provided are the transliterations used in the Revised Romanization of Korean system, and I added some notes comparing the sounds to English for more clarity. The Hangul system is based on letters which come together to form syllable blocks. Every syllable always contains a consonant and a vowel, and might sometimes also include a third and fourth consonant. To form syllables, the letters come together depending on their shape. Horizontal vowels (e.g. \u3157, \u315c, \u3161) go under the consonant (e.g. \u3134 + \u3157 = \ub178), while vertical vowels (e.g. \u314f, \u3153, \u3163) go to the right of the consonant (e.g. \u3134 + \u314f = \ub098). Additional consonants go under the block formed by the first two letters (e.g. \u3141 + \u314f + \u3139 = \ub9d0). Some consonants are pronounced differently depending on whether they’re positioned at the start or the end of the syllable. Five consonants can also become doubled, forming stronger versions of their basic counterparts. Basic consonant Pronounciation\/Transliteration (initial) Pronounciation\/Transliteration (final) \u3131 g (like in “give”) k \u3134 n n \u3137 d t \u3139 r l \u3141 m m \u3142 b p \u3145 s (becomes sh when followed by \u3163or vowels starting with y) t \u3147 (silent) ng \u3148 j (like in “joke”) t \u314a ch t \u314b k k \u314c t t \u314d p p \u314e h t Double consonant Pronounciation\/Transliteration (initial) Pronounciation\/Transliteration (final) \u3132 kk k \u3138 tt (never a final consonant) \u3143 pp (never a final consonant) \u3146 ss t \u3149 jj (never a final consonant) Basic vowel Transliteration Pronounciation \u314f a “ah” \u3153 eo like “uh” but more open \u3157 o “oh” \u315c u “oo” \u3161 eu like saying \u201cuh\u201d with lips spread \u3163 i “ee” \u3151 ya \u201cyah\u201d \u3155 yeo \u201cyuh\u201d \u315b yo “yoh” \u3160 yu “you” Compound vowel Transliteration Pronounciation \u3150 ae like \u201ce\u201d in \u201cbed\u201d \u3154 e similar to \u3150 but more closed, the difference is often unnoticeable in modern Korean \u315a oe similar to “weh\/way” \u315f wi \u201cwee\u201d \u3162 ui “wee”, but sometimes “ee” or “eh” depending on how it’s used \u3152 yae \u201cyeh\u201d \u3156 ye \u201cyeh\u201d (same as above, \u3152 and \u3156 are almost identical) \u3158 wa “wah” \u315d wo “woh” \u3159 wae “weh” \u315e we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12491","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_src":null,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"trp-custom-language-flag":false,"xs-thumb":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"minimalistblogger-grid":false,"minimalistblogger-slider":false,"minimalistblogger-small":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Stefano Cammisa","author_link":"https:\/\/www.cosmundus.com\/en\/author\/stefano-cammisa\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Learning Korean isn’t easy, as it uses a writing system that’s unfamiliar to most people, sentence structures that can feel unexpected, and features countless verb endings, complex grammatical rules, and different levels of formality. It\u2019s completely normal to feel overwhelmed, and that’s what happened to me too. However, this process can become more fun by…","coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"https:\/\/www.cosmundus.com\/en\/author\/stefano-cammisa\/","display_name":"Stefano Cammisa"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 months ago","modified":"Updated 2 weeks ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on January 25, 2026","modified":"Updated on April 14, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on January 25, 2026 11:42 am","modified":"Updated on April 14, 2026 12:39 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","featured_img":false,"series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cosmundus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cosmundus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cosmundus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cosmundus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cosmundus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12491"}],"version-history":[{"count":44,"href":"https:\/\/www.cosmundus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13743,"href":"https:\/\/www.cosmundus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12491\/revisions\/13743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cosmundus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Learn Korean with Loona songs<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
HyunJin – Around You<\/a>
HeeJin, HyunJin – I\u2019ll Be There<\/a>
HaSeul – Let Me In<\/a>
HeeJin, HyunJin, HaSeul – The Carol<\/a>
YeoJin – Kiss Later<\/a>
HeeJin, HyunJin – My Sunday & HaSeul, YeoJin – My Melody<\/a>
Loona 1\/3 – Love & Live<\/a>
Loona 1\/3 – You and Me Together<\/a>
Loona 1\/3 – Fairy Tale<\/a>
Loona 1\/3 – Valentine Girl<\/a>
ViVi feat. HaSeul – Everyday I Love You & ViVi feat. JinSoul – Everyday I Need You<\/a>
Loona 1\/3 \u2013 Sonatine<\/a>
Loona 1\/3 \u2013 Rain 51db<\/a> NEW!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
A quick explanation of Hangul, the Korean writing system<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Basic consonant<\/td> Pronounciation\/
Transliteration (initial)<\/td>Pronounciation\/
Transliteration (final)<\/td><\/tr>\u3131<\/td> g (like in “give”)<\/td> k<\/td><\/tr> \u3134<\/td> n<\/td> n<\/td><\/tr> \u3137<\/td> d<\/td> t<\/td><\/tr> \u3139<\/td> r<\/td> l<\/td><\/tr> \u3141<\/td> m<\/td> m<\/td><\/tr> \u3142<\/td> b<\/td> p<\/td><\/tr> \u3145<\/td> s (becomes sh when followed by \u3163or vowels starting with y)<\/td> t<\/td><\/tr> \u3147<\/td> (silent)<\/td> ng<\/td><\/tr> \u3148<\/td> j (like in “joke”)<\/td> t<\/td><\/tr> \u314a<\/td> ch<\/td> t<\/td><\/tr> \u314b<\/td> k<\/td> k<\/td><\/tr> \u314c<\/td> t<\/td> t<\/td><\/tr> \u314d<\/td> p<\/td> p<\/td><\/tr> \u314e<\/td> h<\/td> t<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Double consonant<\/td> Pronounciation\/
Transliteration (initial)<\/td>Pronounciation\/
Transliteration (final)<\/td><\/tr>\u3132<\/td> kk<\/td> k<\/td><\/tr> \u3138<\/td> tt<\/td> (never a final consonant)<\/td><\/tr> \u3143<\/td> pp<\/td> (never a final consonant)<\/td><\/tr> \u3146<\/td> ss<\/td> t<\/td><\/tr> \u3149<\/td> jj<\/td> (never a final consonant)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Basic vowel<\/td> Transliteration<\/td> Pronounciation<\/td><\/tr> \u314f<\/td> a<\/td> “ah”<\/td><\/tr> \u3153<\/td> eo<\/td> like “uh” but more open<\/td><\/tr> \u3157<\/td> o<\/td> “oh”<\/td><\/tr> \u315c<\/td> u<\/td> “oo”<\/td><\/tr> \u3161<\/td> eu<\/td> like saying \u201cuh\u201d with lips spread<\/td><\/tr> \u3163<\/td> i<\/td> “ee”<\/td><\/tr> \u3151<\/td> ya<\/td> \u201cyah\u201d<\/td><\/tr> \u3155<\/td> yeo<\/td> \u201cyuh\u201d<\/td><\/tr> \u315b<\/td> yo<\/td> “yoh”<\/td><\/tr> \u3160<\/td> yu<\/td> “you”<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Compound vowel<\/td> Transliteration<\/td> Pronounciation<\/td><\/tr> \u3150<\/td> ae<\/td> like \u201ce\u201d in \u201cbed\u201d<\/td><\/tr> \u3154<\/td> e<\/td> similar to \u3150 but more closed, the difference is often unnoticeable in modern Korean<\/td><\/tr> \u315a<\/td> oe<\/td> similar to “weh\/way”<\/td><\/tr> \u315f<\/td> wi<\/td> \u201cwee\u201d<\/td><\/tr> \u3162<\/td> ui<\/td> “wee”, but sometimes “ee” or “eh” depending on how it’s used<\/td><\/tr> \u3152<\/td> yae<\/td> \u201cyeh\u201d<\/td><\/tr> \u3156<\/td> ye<\/td> \u201cyeh\u201d (same as above, \u3152 and \u3156 are almost identical)<\/td><\/tr> \u3158<\/td> wa<\/td> “wah”<\/td><\/tr> \u315d<\/td> wo<\/td> “woh”<\/td><\/tr> \u3159<\/td> wae<\/td> “weh”<\/td><\/tr> \u315e<\/td> we<\/td> \u201cweh\u201d (same as above, \u3159 and \u315e are almost identical)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\u3141 (m) + \u315c (u) = \ubb34 (mu), “radish”
\u3148 (j) + \u3163(i) + \u3142 (p (as final)) = \uc9d1 (jip), “house”
\u3147 (silent) + \u3157 (o) = \uc624 (o), “five”
\u3142 (b) + \u314f (a) + \u3147 (ng (as final)) = \ubc29 (bang), “room”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\uc6c3\uc74c (useum) “smile, laughter” is pronounced as “\uc6b0\uc2b4”<\/p>\n\n\n\n