ㄱ

Hangul - The Korean Alphabet

Read any Korean text aloud by the end of this lesson.

⏱ 60-90 minutes

Hangul was designed in 1443 by King Sejong specifically to be easy to learn. The shapes of the consonants literally show your mouth/tongue position.

The System

Korean is not like Chinese or Japanese. There are no thousands of characters.

ㄱ

14 basic consonants

ㅏ

10 basic vowels

ㄲ

5 double consonants

ㅘ

11 compound vowels

That's it. And they combine into syllable blocks - always in the same pattern.

Step 1: Vowels

10 minutes

Vowels are built from two elements: a vertical line ㅣ and a horizontal line ㅡ.

Basic Vowels

Hangul	Romanisation	Sound	Memory Trick
ㅏ	a	"ah" (father)	Line points right → mouth opens forward
ㅓ	eo	"uh" (but)	Line points left → sound pulls back
ㅗ	o	"oh" (go)	Line points up → lips round up
ㅜ	u	"oo" (food)	Line points down → lips push down
ㅡ	eu	"uh" (put, flat lips)	Flat line → flat lips
ㅣ	i	"ee" (see)	Vertical line → thin sound

Y-Vowels

Hangul	Romanisation	Sound
ㅑ	ya	"yah"
ㅕ	yeo	"yuh"
ㅛ	yo	"yo"
ㅠ	yu	"yoo"

💡 Adding an extra short stroke = adding "y" before the vowel.

Step 2: Consonants

15 minutes

Basic Consonants

Hangul	Romanisation	Sound	Memory Trick
ㄱ	g/k	"g" as in "go"	Looks like a corner/angle
ㄴ	n	"n" as in "no"	Looks like an L (tongue touches roof)
ㄷ	d/t	"d" as in "do"	ㄴ with a lid on top
ㄹ	r/l	"r" between vowels, "l" at end	Looks like a flag/ribbon
ㅁ	m	"m" as in "me"	Square = mouth closed
ㅂ	b/p	"b" as in "be"	Looks like a bucket
ㅅ	s	"s" as in "see"	Looks like a tree/hat
ㅇ	silent/ng	Silent at start, "ng" at end	Circle = nothing (zero sound at start)
ㅈ	j	"j" as in "just"	ㅅ with a line on top
ㅎ	h	"h" as in "hi"	Looks like a person wearing a hat

Aspirated Consonants

Add a stroke = more air

Hangul	Base	Sound
ㅋ	ㄱ + breath	"k" with strong air
ㅌ	ㄷ + breath	"t" with strong air
ㅍ	ㅂ + breath	"p" with strong air
ㅊ	ㅈ + breath	"ch" with strong air

Double Consonants

Tense, no air release

Hangul	Sound
ㄲ	Hard "k" (like "sky")
ㄸ	Hard "t" (like "still")
ㅃ	Hard "p" (like "spy")
ㅆ	Hard "s" (like "sea" but tenser)
ㅉ	Hard "j" (like "jeans" but tenser)

Step 3: Syllable Blocks

10 minutes

Korean characters are always grouped into syllable blocks. Every block has:

1. Initial consonant (top-left or top)
2. Vowel (right side or bottom)
3. Optional final consonant (bottom) - called 받침 (batchim)

Pattern 1: CV (consonant + vertical vowel)

가 = ㄱ + ㅏ = "ga"

Pattern 2: CV (consonant + horizontal vowel)

고 = ㄱ + ㅗ = "go"

Pattern 3: CVC (with final consonant)

C₂

한 = ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ = "han"

Step 4: Practice Reading

15 minutes

Read these aloud. Don't worry about meaning yet - just sound them out:

가

to go

나

me/I

다

all

마

(question particle)

바

(rock)

사

four

아

ah!

자

let's...

하

Now try these real words:

Hangul	Romanisation	Meaning
한국	han-guk	Korea
사람	sa-ram	person
감사	gam-sa	thanks
음식	eum-sik	food
이름	i-reum	name
학생	hak-saeng	student
선생님	seon-saeng-nim	teacher
대한민국	dae-han-min-guk	Republic of Korea

Step 5: Compound Vowels

10 minutes

These are combinations of basic vowels:

Hangul	Components	Sound
ㅐ	ㅏ + ㅣ	"ae" (bed)
ㅔ	ㅓ + ㅣ	"e" (bed) - practically same as ㅐ
ㅘ	ㅗ + ㅏ	"wa" (water)
ㅙ	ㅗ + ㅐ	"wae" (way)
ㅚ	ㅗ + ㅣ	"oe" (wet)
ㅝ	ㅜ + ㅓ	"wo" (wonder)
ㅞ	ㅜ + ㅔ	"we" (wet)
ㅟ	ㅜ + ㅣ	"wi" (week)
ㅢ	ㅡ + ㅣ	"ui" (unique)
ㅒ	ㅑ + ㅣ	"yae"
ㅖ	ㅕ + ㅣ	"ye" (yes)

💡 In modern spoken Korean, ㅐ and ㅔ sound almost identical. Don't stress about the difference.

Checkpoint: Can You Read These?

Cover the romanisation column and try to read each word:

Hangul	Romanisation	Meaning
안녕하세요	an-nyeong-ha-se-yo	Hello
감사합니다	gam-sa-ham-ni-da	Thank you
커피	keo-pi	Coffee
치킨	chi-kin	Chicken
택시	taek-si	Taxi
버스	beo-seu	Bus
서울	seo-ul	Seoul
김치	gim-chi	Kimchi
불고기	bul-go-gi	Bulgogi
비빔밥	bi-bim-bap	Bibimbap

If you can sound these out - you can read Korean. The rest is vocabulary and grammar.

Pronunciation Rules

1ㅇ at the start = silent. ㅇ at the end = "ng"
2ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ at the end of a syllable become softer: k, t, p
3ㄹ between vowels = soft "r". ㄹ at end = "l"
4Double consonants (ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ) = tense, no air puff
5When ㄹ meets ㄴ across syllables, both become "l" → 설날 = "seol-lal"

Practice Hangul

Test yourself - type the romanisation for each character.

1/10

What sound does this make?

ㅑ

Lesson Complete

You can now read any Korean text aloud, even if you don't understand it.

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