Learn How to Read ANYTHING in Korea by Learning Hangul

If you’re coming to Korea for the first time, the most important thing to do FIRST is learn the alphabet.

Even if you study absolutely no grammar or vocabulary, learning the alphabet is essential to your happiness and success in Korea. It’s also the easiest part of Korean to learn. You can learn the entire alphabet in a single afternoon (or in a single blog post!).

Overview

Letters

1. Hangul has a total of 24 basic letters (less than the English alphabet).
2. The 24 basic letters can combine to form 40 total letters (less than Japanese).
3. Hangul consists of consonants and vowels (like English).
4. Because it is an alphabet, Hangul has an alphabetical order (shown below – it’s useful to learn for using dictionaries).

Syllables

1. The consonants and vowels are arranged into syllable blocks (with up to 3-4 letters per block).
2. Syllable blocks of letters arranged together form words and spaces (띄어쓰기) separate words.
3. Every syllable block begins with a consonant.
4. The empty consonant ㅇ is used for words that begin with vowel sounds.

Pronunciation

1. The final consonant in a syllable block is called the “padt-chim” (받침).
2. The 받침’s sound carries over into the next syllable IF the next syllable starts with a vowel sound (empty consonant ㅇ).

Writing

1. Hangul is written from LEFT → RIGHT and from TOP → BOTTOM.
2. Vertical vowels go to the right of the consonant; horizontal vowels go under the consonant.

Vertical Vowels	아 야 어 여 이 애 얘 에 예
Horizontal Vowels	오 요 우 유 으

History

1. Hangul was developed by King Sejong and a group of scholars beginning in 1443.
2. It was introduced to the people in 1446 to replace Chinese writing and improve literacy in Korea.
3. It is widely acclaimed by linguists around the world as an ingenious invention.

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The Alphabet

• Basic consonants (14): ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ
• Basic vowels (10): ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ
• Double consonants (5): ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ
• Double vowels (11): ㅐ ㅔ ㅒ ㅖ ㅘ ㅙ ㅝ ㅞ ㅚ ㅟ ㅢ
• TOTAL (40): Basic letters (24) + Double letters (16)

Basic consonants:

Letter	English	Starting Consonant	Final Consonant
ㄱ	g/k	go (고), kimchi (김치)	luck/lug (럭)
ㄴ	n	no (노)	noon (눈)
ㄷ	d	dot (닷)	good (굳)
ㄹ	l (r)	lemon (레몬)	bowl (볼)
ㅁ	m	man (맨)	mom (맘)
ㅂ	b/p (v)	big (빅), Visa (비자)	bob/bop (밥)
ㅅ	s	sun (선)	dot (닷)
ㅇ	-/ng	---	young (영)
ㅈ	j (z)	jam (잼), zero (재로)	dot (닷)
ㅊ	ch	chair (체어)	dot (닷)
ㅋ	kk	Korea (코리아)	luck (렄)
ㅌ	t	tire (타이어)	dot (닷)
ㅍ	p (f)	pan, fan (팬)	pop (팦)
ㅎ	h	haha (하하)	*

*ㅎ: When in the final consonant position of one syllable, the sound carries over to the following syllable and aspirates it. For example:

• ㄱ (g) → ㅋ (kk)
• ㄷ (d) → ㅌ (t)
• ㅂ (b) → ㅍ (p)
• ㅈ (j) → ㅊ (ch)

Basic vowels:

Letter	English	Example
ㅏ	ah	haha (하하)
ㅑ	ya	Yahoo (야후)
ㅓ	uh	upset (업셋)
ㅕ	yeo	young (영)
ㅗ	oh	go (고)
ㅛ	yo	yo-yo (요요)
ㅜ	ooo	noon (눈)
ㅠ	you	you (유)
ㅡ	...e-uh...	put (픗)
ㅣ	ee	see (시)

Double consonants:

Letter	English	Starting Consonant	Final Consonant
ㄲ	strong g	go! (꼬)	rug (럮)
ㄸ	strong d	die! (따이)	---
ㅃ	strong b	ball! (빨)	---
ㅆ	strong s/sh	she! (씨)	dot (닸)
ㅉ	strong j/z	pizza! (피짜)	---

*There are additionally a few other double consonants like 읽 and 없 but you can learn those as you come to them.

Double vowels:

Letter	English	Example
ㅐ	eh*	men (맨)
ㅒ	yeh+	yeah (얘)
ㅔ	eh*	men (멘)
ㅖ	yeh+	yeah (예)
ㅘ	wah	Hawaii (하와이)
ㅙ	way~	way (왜)
ㅝ	wuh	war (워)
ㅞ	way~	way (웨)
ㅚ	way~	way (외)
ㅟ	we	we (위)
ㅢ	...e-uh..ee...	**

• *ㅐ and ㅔ are nearly indistinguishable
• + ㅒ and ㅖ also sound the same
• ~ ㅙ, ㅞ, and ㅚ are also hard to tell apart
• ** There is no English equivalent for ㅢ. It is pronounced by combining those two vowels together “…e-uh…ee.” (Although in some cases and dialects it is pronounced as ㅔ or ㅖ as in 나의 = “na-yay” or 그들의 = “ke-dul-ay”.)