Hangul is an alphabet, and a friendly one
Korean looks like it uses thousands of characters. It uses 24 basic letters.
Hangul was introduced in the 15th century under King Sejong, and it was designed on purpose to be easy to learn. Each symbol is a letter with one job, like the letters of the English alphabet. The visual trick is that Korean stacks its letters into square syllable blocks instead of writing them in a flat line.
So ํ๊ตญ (Korea) is four letters, packed into two blocks: ใ + ใ + ใด make ํ, and ใฑ + ใ + ใฑ make ๊ตญ. Once you can unpack a block, you can read anything, including words you have never seen. Your goal in this unit is the unpacking skill.
| ํ๊ตญ | Korea han-guk, two blocks: ํ + ๊ตญ |
| ์ฌ๋ | love sa-rang, two blocks: ์ฌ + ๋ |
How a block is built
Every block starts with a consonant, followed by a vowel, and optionally ends with one or two final consonants. The vowel decides the layout. Tall, vertical vowels like ใ , ใ and ใ ฃ sit to the right of the first consonant. Wide, horizontal vowels like ใ , ใ and ใ ก sit underneath it.
One special rule: a block can never start with a bare vowel on paper. If the syllable begins with a vowel sound, Korean writes the silent placeholder ใ first. In ์ (an), the ใ makes no sound at all. Inside a block you read left to right, then top to bottom, and blocks follow each other left to right like English words.
- Vertical vowel: consonant on the left, vowel on the right, as in ๋ (na)
- Horizontal vowel: consonant on top, vowel below, as in ๋ ธ (no)
- Final consonant (batchim): tucked along the bottom, as in ๋ and ๋ ผ
- ใ at the start of a block is silent; at the bottom it sounds like ng
| ๋ฌผ | water mul, ใ
+ ใ
+ ใน in one block |
| ๋ฐฅ | cooked rice, a meal bap, ใ
+ ใ
+ ใ
|
| ์ด๋ฆ | name i-reum, first block starts with silent ใ
|
The basic consonants
Learn these ten first. The remaining consonants are doubled or aspirated versions of the same shapes.
| Letter | Name | Sound |
|---|---|---|
| ใฑ | giyeok | g, closer to k at the start of a word |
| ใด | nieun | n |
| ใท | digeut | d, closer to t at the start of a word |
| ใน | rieul | a soft r between vowels, l at the end of a block |
| ใ | mieum | m |
| ใ | bieup | b, closer to p at the start of a word |
| ใ | siot | s, sh before the vowel i |
| ใ | ieung | silent at the start, ng at the bottom |
| ใ | jieut | j |
| ใ | hieut | h |
The basic vowels
Eight vowel shapes cover most of what you will read in week one. Adding a short extra stroke to ใ , ใ , ใ or ใ adds a y sound: ใ (ya), ใ (yeo), ใ (yo), ใ (yu).
| Vowel | Romanization | Rough English sound |
|---|---|---|
| ใ | a | a as in father |
| ใ | eo | u as in up |
| ใ | o | o as in go, but shorter |
| ใ | u | oo as in moon |
| ใ ก | eu | oo said with flat, spread lips |
| ใ ฃ | i | ee as in see |
| ใ | ae | e as in bed |
| ใ | e | e as in bed, same in modern speech |
Do not fight ใ versus ใ . Most modern Seoul speakers pronounce them identically, so learn the spelling of each word and move on.
Batchim: the final consonant
The consonant at the bottom of a block is called the batchim. Korean allows many letters in that slot, but only seven sounds ever come out: k, n, t, l, m, p and ng. A final ใ , ใ or ใ , for example, all collapse to an unreleased t sound.
Unreleased means your mouth moves to the position of the consonant and stops there, without the puff of air an English final t gets. ๋ฐฅ ends with your lips closed on the p, and that closure is the whole sound.
| ์ฑ | book chaek, final ใฑ is an unreleased k |
| ์ง | house, home jip, final ใ
is an unreleased p |
Two sound changes you will meet immediately
First, linking. When a block ends in a consonant and the next block starts with silent ใ , the consonant slides over and becomes the first sound of the next syllable. ํ๊ตญ์ด (Korean language) is written han-guk-eo but pronounced han-gu-geo.
Second, nasal assimilation. When ใ meets ใด, the ใ turns into ใ . That is why ํฉ๋๋ค, the formal verb ending you hear constantly, is pronounced ham-ni-da even though it is spelled hap-ni-da. Spelling stays fixed; pronunciation adapts.
| ํ๊ตญ์ด | the Korean language han-gu-geo, the final ใฑ links onto ์ด |
| ๊ฐ์ฌํฉ๋๋ค. | Thank you. gam-sa-ham-ni-da, ํฉ is pronounced ham before ๋ |
| ์๋ ํ์ธ์. | Hello. an-nyeong-ha-se-yo, five blocks, read one at a time |
Your reading strategy
- Unpack every block: first consonant, vowel, batchim, in that order
- Read block by block at first; speed comes from repetition, never from guessing
- Say each word out loud; Hangul rewards your mouth, then your eyes
- Drop romanization as soon as you can; use it to check yourself, never to read
| ์ปคํผ | coffee keo-pi, loanwords are perfect early reading practice |
Pronunciation corner
These four sounds have no exact English match. Get them right now and everything later sounds better.
| ใ (eo) | [ส] | the u in English 'up', with the mouth slightly more open |
| ใ ก (eu) | [ษฏ] | say 'oo' but spread your lips flat as if smiling |
| ใน (r/l) | [ษพ] between vowels, [l] at the end of a block | between vowels it is a quick tap, like the tt in American 'butter' |
| final ใ (ng) | [ล] | the ng in 'song', never a hard g |
Practice drill
Romanize each word, or answer the question about its block structure. Write romanization with hyphens between syllables.
Romanize: ๋ฐฅShow answer
bap
Romanize: ์ฌ๋ (person)Show answer
sa-ram
How many syllable blocks are in ๊ฐ์ฌํฉ๋๋ค?Show answer
5๊ฐ, ์ฌ, ํฉ, ๋, ๋ค
Which letter in ์ is silent?Show answer
ใ at the start of a block, ใ is a placeholder
Romanize as pronounced: ํ๊ตญ์ดShow answer
han-gu-geothe final ใฑ of ๊ตญ links onto ์ด
In the block ๋ฌผ, which letter is the batchim?Show answer
ในthe bottom consonant of a block
Romanize: ์ปคํผShow answer
keo-pi
True or false: inside a block you read left to right, then top to bottom.Show answer
True
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to learn Hangul?
The alphabet itself is small, 24 basic letters, and most learners can decode slowly after a few focused sessions. Comfortable reading speed takes a few weeks of daily practice, mostly through reading real words rather than studying charts.
Is Hangul related to Chinese characters?
No. Hangul is a true alphabet where letters map to sounds. Korean texts historically also used Chinese characters, called hanja, but modern everyday Korean is written almost entirely in Hangul, and you can ignore hanja as a beginner.
Should I keep using romanization while I learn?
Use it only to check yourself. Romanization hides sound changes like ํฉ๋๋ค sounding as ham-ni-da, and it slows down real reading. Most learners can drop it within their first couple of weeks.
Why does the spelling sometimes disagree with the sound?
Korean spelling preserves the root of each word, while pronunciation follows regular sound-change rules like linking and nasal assimilation. The rules are consistent, so once you know them, spelling and sound stop feeling contradictory.