The Korean Alphabet: A Beginner's Guide to Hangul

The Korean alphabet, Hangul, has 24 basic letters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels. It was designed on purpose in the 15th century under King Sejong, and the letters are packed into square blocks, one block per syllable. Learn the 24 letters, then the doubled consonants and combined vowels, then how blocks are built, and you can sound out real Korean words, often within a few days of steady practice.

This guide uses the letters, names and sounds from our free Korean alphabet chart, and every practice word comes from our list of the 5,927 most common Korean words, with its rank on that list.

#What kind of script is Hangul?

Most alphabets grew slowly out of older scripts. Hangul did not. Our alphabet data calls it featural: the shape of a letter shows how you make the sound.

• Consonants picture the mouth. ㄱ shows the back of the tongue raised to block the throat, ㄴ the tongue tip touching the ridge behind the teeth, ㅁ the closed mouth, ㅅ a tooth and ㅇ the open throat. Other consonants add strokes to these five: ㄴ becomes ㄷ and then ㅌ, ㅁ becomes ㅂ and then ㅍ, ㅅ becomes ㅈ and then ㅊ.
• Vowels are built from three ideas. A dot for heaven (today written as a short stroke), a flat line for earth (ㅡ) and a standing line for a person (ㅣ). Put the short stroke on the right of ㅣ and you get ㅏ (a); on the left, ㅓ (eo).

Korean is still an alphabet in the strict sense: vowels and consonants are separate, equal letters. What makes it look unlike English is the layout. Instead of writing letters in a row, you pack each syllable into a square, so 한 (han) is three letters, ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ, in one block.

#A short history: King Sejong and the 15th century

Before Hangul, Korean was written with Chinese characters, which took years to learn and did not fit Korean grammar well. King Sejong the Great of the Joseon dynasty set out to give ordinary people a script they could learn quickly. The royal records say that in the last month of 1443 the king devised 28 letters, and the script was published in 1446 in a document called Hunminjeongeum, “the correct sounds for the instruction of the people.”

Four of those 28 letters later fell out of use, which leaves the 24 basic letters taught today. South Korea celebrates the script every year on Hangul Day, October 9.

#The 14 basic Korean consonants

These are the consonants on our Hangul chart. Sounds are rough English approximations, enough to sound a word out.

A few of them need a note:

• ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ and ㅈ sit between two English sounds. At the start of a word they sound closer to a soft k, t, p and ch; between two vowels they sound like g, d, b and j. Koreans hear them as one sound, so don’t worry about it at first.
• ㄹ is a quick flap, close to the tt in American “butter”, at the start of a syllable, and an l at the end of one.
• ㅇ does two jobs. At the start of a block it is silent and only fills the space, because a block cannot begin with a vowel. At the end of a block it is ng, as in “sing”.

#The 10 basic Korean vowels

Look for the pattern: one short stroke is a plain vowel, two short strokes add a y in front. ㅏ is a and ㅑ is ya, ㅗ is o and ㅛ is yo. That turns ten shapes into five pairs.

Notice also which way each vowel points. ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅣ are vertical, and ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ are horizontal. That decides where the vowel goes in a syllable block, as you’ll see below.

#Combined vowels

The chart lists the 10 basic vowels. Real Korean also joins them into 11 combined vowels, which is how the full set reaches 21 vowels:

In everyday Seoul speech ㅐ and ㅔ sound almost the same, and so do ㅙ, ㅚ and ㅞ. You still have to spell them correctly, so learn each word’s spelling as you meet it.

#Tense and aspirated consonants

This is the part of Hangul that English speakers find hardest, because English has no separate letters for these sounds.

Korean has three versions of several consonants:

• Plain: ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ ㅈ, said softly with a little air.
• Aspirated: ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅊ, said with a strong puff of air, like the k in “kit” if you hold a hand in front of your mouth.
• Tense: ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅉ, and ㅆ for s. These are written by doubling the plain letter. Say them with a tight throat and no puff of air, a little like the k in “sky” or the p in “spy”.

The five doubled letters, added to the 14 basic ones, give the 19 consonants of the full set.

The difference changes the meaning. Two sets of words from our list show it:

#How letters stack into syllable blocks

Every Korean syllable is one square block, and every block starts with a consonant. There are only a few layouts:

1. Consonant + vertical vowel, side by side. ㄴ + ㅏ = 나 (na). ㅎ + ㅣ = 히 (hi).
2. Consonant + horizontal vowel, stacked. ㄴ + ㅜ = 누 (nu). ㄱ + ㅗ = 고 (go).
3. Either of those plus a final consonant underneath. ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ = 한 (han). ㄱ + ㅡ + ㄹ = 글 (geul).

Put the last two together and you have 한글, the name of the alphabet itself (#1554 on our list).

When a syllable starts with a vowel sound, the silent ㅇ fills the consonant slot. That’s why 아 is simply “a” and 우 is simply “u”. Combined vowels wrap around: ㅇ + ㅘ = 와 (wa), with ㅗ under the ㅇ and ㅏ on the right.

You read each block top-left first, then right, then down, and the blocks themselves run left to right like English.

#Batchim: final consonants, briefly

The consonant at the bottom of a block is called batchim (받침). Almost any consonant can sit there, but at the end of a syllable they collapse into just seven sounds:

The final k, t and p are not released: your mouth closes on the sound and stops. So 꽃 (flower, #976) is said kkot, with the ㅊ at the bottom sounding like a clipped t, and 밥 (cooked rice, #382) is bap, with the lips closing on the last p.

Two more things you’ll notice soon. Some blocks have two consonants at the bottom, and usually only one of them is said. And when a block ending in a consonant is followed by one that starts with the silent ㅇ, the consonant slides over: 한국어 (the Korean language, #5789) is spelled han-guk-eo but said han-gu-geo. These are rules to pick up while reading, not to memorize before you start.

#Read your first Korean words

Each of these is on our most common Korean words list, with its rank.

Start with 아이 and 우유: only vowels and the silent ㅇ. 나무 and 바다 add plain consonants. 오늘 and 사람 bring in batchim, 커피 uses two aspirated consonants, and 딸 a tense one. By the end of the table you’ve used every kind of letter in this guide.

#A learning plan for the Korean alphabet

Keep the Korean alphabet chart open while you work through the first steps. After the letters come words: the Korean most common words list gives each one with an English meaning, and once you can read a few hundred, the Korean vocabulary test estimates how many words from the list you know.

A fair warning: the script is the quick part. The US Foreign Service Institute puts Korean among the languages that take English speakers longest to learn, and the alphabet is not the reason; our post on how long it takes to learn a language has the numbers.

#Practice reading and speaking with native speakers

A chart teaches you the shapes, and a person teaches you the sounds. On LangX, Korean is one of the 182 languages you can pick, and matching runs both ways: you see people who speak Korean and are learning a language you speak. They can hold any of your messages to correct it, corrections are unlimited on every plan, and you can send voice messages so they hear how you say 달, 탈 and 딸, not only how you spell them. LangX has voice messages rather than live calls. The free plan includes 5 new conversations a day and unlimited replies.

9:41

Lucía M. Online

Today

Hold any message to correct it — corrections are the most useful thing you can send.

¿Cómo fue tu fin de semana? Cuéntame en inglés si quieres. How was your weekend? Tell me in English if you like. 09:12

Fui a la playa con mi hermana. Hacía mucho calor y yo no llevé agua. 09:14 · Read

Correction from Lucía Hacía mucho calor y yo no llevé agua. Hacía mucho calor y no llevé agua. The «yo» isn't wrong, it just sounds emphatic — like you specifically forgot. 09:15

Message in Spanish…

If you want to compare LangX with tutors and other apps for this, see our roundup of the best apps to practice Korean with native speakers. You can get the app here, or read how to do a language exchange first.

#More alphabet guides

Learning another script as well? Compare Hangul’s designed shapes with the Greek alphabet, the Russian alphabet and the Bulgarian alphabet, or with the abugidas in our guides to the Hindi alphabet, the Bengali alphabet and the Malayalam alphabet. All the charts are on the alphabet tools page.

#FAQ

#How many letters are in the Korean alphabet?

Hangul has 24 basic letters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Counting the 5 doubled consonants and the 11 combined vowels as well gives 40 letters: 19 consonants and 21 vowels.

#Who invented the Korean alphabet?

It was created under King Sejong the Great of the Joseon dynasty. The script was devised in 1443 and published in 1446 in the Hunminjeongeum.

#How long does it take to learn Hangul?

Many learners can read Hangul slowly after a few days of focused study, because the letters are few and follow clear patterns. Reading fluently, and knowing what you’re reading, takes much longer.

#What is batchim in Korean?

Batchim is the consonant written at the bottom of a syllable block, such as ㄴ in 한. At the end of a syllable it is said as one of seven sounds: k, n, t, l, m, p or ng.

#Why does ㅇ appear at the start of so many blocks?

Every block must start with a consonant. When a syllable begins with a vowel sound, the silent ㅇ fills that slot, so 아 is read “a”. At the bottom of a block, ㅇ is pronounced ng.