A character in Korean can be a combination of more than two parts. Let's take a look at the following sentence:

There are a couple of new characters here, let's take a look.

릭 consists of ㄹ(r/l), ㅣ(i), and ㄱ(k/g) and provides a rik sound.
에릭 = Erik, and the 이 marks 에릭 as the subject of the sentence.
뭐 consists of ㅁ(m), ㅜ(u), and ㅓ(eo) and provides a mwo sound.
뭐 = what
해 consists of ㅎ(h) and ㅐ(ae) and provides a hae sound.
해다 = to do

A character can even be composed of four parts. See the following sentence:

Here we have a new verb, 읽다, which means to read. The character 읽 consists of four parts.

ㅇ, marking that there is no initial consonant (the word starts with a vowel)
ㅣ(the i sound)
ㄹ(the r/l sound)
ㄱ(the k/g sound)

All these symbols may be a bit much at the moment, but if you just stick with with us a little while longer, it will feel natural soon. That's a promise!

In the next lesson we'll learn how to type these Korean characters, but for now let's get started learning to read some new words!

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