The Korean Alphabet (Hangul): A Complete Beginner’s Chart

---

You can learn the letters of the modern Korean alphabet, Hangul, by the end of the day.

You really can. In this article I'll walk you through every letter used in modern Korean: the consonants, the vowels, how they snap together into those neat little syllable blocks, and the handful of pronunciation quirks worth knowing early. By the end you'll be sounding out real Korean words instead of staring at them.

Of all the writing systems I've learned, Hangul is the friendliest. It's a small, tidy, gloriously logical alphabet that was deliberately designed to be easy, a world away from the wall of thousands of characters you'd face in Chinese. The commentary published with the alphabet in 1446 famously claimed that a wise person could learn it in a morning, and even a less able learner within ten days. I wouldn't use that as a stopwatch, but it shows that quick learning was part of the design from the start.

I've sat where you're sitting. I took on a three-month Korean mission and went from zero to holding a real conversation in the language. Here's the unscripted chat I recorded at the end of it, so you know the tips below come from someone who has actually done the work rather than just written about it:

By the way, the Korean alphabet has a name of its own: 한글 (Hangeul). Let's learn it.

Why Hangul Is So Easy to Learn (a Quick Story)

Most alphabets just sort of happened, drifting into shape over centuries. Hangul didn't. It has a recorded creator, date and purpose.

In 1443, Koreans used Chinese characters and adapted Chinese-character systems to write their language, and most people had no easy way to read or record their own words. King Sejong the Great created a new alphabet to change that. In 1446 he published a book explaining it, the Hunminjeongeum, whose title means “The Correct Sounds for the Instruction of the People”.

The clever part is that the five basic consonant shapes are diagrams of the speech organs used to make them. ㄱ shows the back of the tongue touching the soft roof of the mouth. ㄴ shows the tip of the tongue touching the ridge behind the upper teeth. ㅁ takes its shape from closed lips. Many of the other consonants build on these basic shapes, so you have a system to remember rather than a set of random squiggles.

So when you feel a wobble of “I'll never learn a foreign alphabet”, remember that this one was built from scratch to make reading and writing easier to learn.

The Korean Consonants

There are 14 basic consonants in Hangul. Here they are with their romanisation (I'm using the standard Revised Romanization throughout) and a pronunciation note for each.

One thing to flag before the table: several consonants have two romanised values, like ㄱ being g/k, because position and surrounding sounds affect both their pronunciation and romanisation. Revised Romanization writes ㄱ as g before a vowel and k before another consonant or word-finally. A word-initial ㄱ isn't the same as the fully voiced g in “go”, though, and modern Seoul Korean also uses the pitch of the following vowel to help distinguish plain, aspirated and tense consonants. For now, listen for the contrast instead of trying to force every sound into an English box.

Letter	Name	Romanisation	Pronunciation note
ㄱ	giyeok	g / k	a plain k/g-like sound; often voiced between vowels; an unreleased k finally
ㄴ	nieun	n	n in “now”
ㄷ	digeut	d / t	a plain t/d-like sound; often voiced between vowels; an unreleased t finally
ㄹ	rieul	r / l	a soft, flicked r between vowels; an l at the end
ㅁ	mieum	m	m in “mom”
ㅂ	bieup	b / p	a plain p/b-like sound; often voiced between vowels; an unreleased p finally
ㅅ	siot	s / t	s-like, often more sh-like before ㅣ and y-vowels; an unreleased t finally
ㅇ	ieung	silent / ng	silent at the start of a syllable; ng (as in “sing”) at the end
ㅈ	jieut	j	a plain j/ch-like sound whose voicing changes with position
ㅊ	chieut	ch	ch in “church”, with a stronger puff of air
ㅋ	kieuk	k	a strongly aspirated k, like “kite” with extra breath
ㅌ	tieut	t	a strongly aspirated t, like “top” with extra breath
ㅍ	pieup	p	a strongly aspirated p, like “pot” with extra breath
ㅎ	hieut	h	h in “hello” at the start of a syllable

Two of these deserve a closer look:

• ㅇ (ieung) is the chameleon of the alphabet. At the start of a syllable it makes no sound; it fills the initial position when the syllable begins with a vowel sound. That doesn't mean the vowel letter itself cannot appear on its own in an alphabet chart. At the end of a syllable, ㅇ becomes the ng sound. So in 앙 (ang) the first ㅇ is silent and the last ㅇ is the ng.
• ㄹ (rieul) lives somewhere between English r and l. Between two vowels it's a quick flick of the tongue, close to the r in the Spanish “pero”; at the end of a syllable it relaxes into an l. One letter, two flavours, and your ear will sort them out faster than your brain will.

The 5 Double Consonants

On top of the basic 14, Hangul has 5 “double” or tense consonants, written by doubling a basic letter. They sound short and tight, without the strong puff of air from the aspirated consonants, and they also affect the pitch at the start of the following vowel. English comparisons are only rough guides here, so copy a native recording when you practise them.

Letter	Romanisation	Built from	Pronunciation note
ㄲ	kk	ㄱ + ㄱ	a tense, clipped k, roughly like the ck in “sticker”
ㄸ	tt	ㄷ + ㄷ	a tense, clipped t with no exact English match
ㅃ	pp	ㅂ + ㅂ	a tense, clipped p with no exact English match
ㅆ	ss	ㅅ + ㅅ	a tense, hissed s
ㅉ	jj	ㅈ + ㅈ	a tense, clipped j/ch-like sound

Don't sweat the tense consonants on day one. Learn the basic 14 first, get reading, and let these slot in once your ear is warmed up.

The Korean Vowels

There are 10 basic vowels in Hangul, and they're beautifully systematic. Four pairs use a second short stroke to add a y sound: ㅏ (a) becomes ㅑ (ya), ㅓ becomes ㅕ, ㅗ becomes ㅛ, and ㅜ becomes ㅠ. That pattern gives you eight vowels, with ㅡ and ㅣ left to learn separately.

Letter	Romanisation	Pronunciation note
ㅏ	a	a in “father”
ㅑ	ya	ya in “yard”
ㅓ	eo	roughly u in “but”, but with the tongue farther back
ㅕ	yeo	the ㅓ sound with a y in front, roughly yu in “young”
ㅗ	o	a pure o, without the long glide many English speakers use in “go”
ㅛ	yo	the ㅗ sound with a y in front
ㅜ	u	oo in “moon”
ㅠ	yu	you
ㅡ	eu	keep the tongue high and back as for oo, but leave the lips unrounded; no English twin
ㅣ	i	ee in “see”

The two to watch are ㅓ (eo) and ㅡ (eu), because their romanisation looks stranger than the sounds actually are. ㅓ is roughly the “uh” in “but”, though the exact match depends on your English accent. For ㅡ, hold your tongue high and towards the back as if you were saying “oo”, but don't round your lips. Hear both from a native speaker and copy the sound rather than the romanisation.

The 11 Other Vowel Letters

Modern Hangul uses 21 vowel letters. Beginner charts usually group the 11 below as compound vowels because they extend or combine the basic shapes:

Letter	Romanisation	Pronunciation note
ㅐ	ae	roughly e in “bed”
ㅔ	e	roughly e in “bed”; often merged or nearly merged with ㅐ
ㅒ	yae	roughly ye in “yes”; often close to ㅖ
ㅖ	ye	roughly ye in “yes”
ㅘ	wa	ㅗ gliding into ㅏ, roughly wa
ㅙ	wae	roughly we in “wet” for many speakers
ㅚ	oe	often pronounced roughly like we in “wet”
ㅝ	wo	ㅜ gliding into ㅓ, roughly wo in “won”
ㅞ	we	roughly we in “wet”
ㅟ	wi	roughly wee
ㅢ	ui	ㅡ gliding into ㅣ at the start of a word; often simplified to i after a consonant, while the possessive 의 may sound like e

A small mercy here: many modern speakers, especially in Seoul, merge or nearly merge ㅐ and ㅔ, and ㅙ, ㅚ and ㅞ can sound very similar too. The spellings still stay distinct, so learn to recognise them even when your ear doesn't hear three tidy differences.

How Korean Syllable Blocks Work

This is the one idea that makes Korean reading suddenly click, so it's worth slowing down for.

Unlike English, where letters run along in a straight line, Korean stacks its letters into square syllable blocks. Each block is one syllable, built from an initial position and a vowel plus an optional final consonant or consonant cluster:

1. An initial position, filled by a pronounced consonant or by silent ㅇ when the syllable begins with a vowel sound
2. A vowel in the medial position
3. An optional final consonant or consonant cluster, called a 받침 (batchim, literally “support”)

The sound order is initial, vowel, then optional final, but the visual layout changes with the vowel. A vertical vowel goes to the right of the initial, while a horizontal vowel sits below it. Compound vowels and final clusters make some blocks look denser, but you still read the same three positions in the same order. Let's build a few from scratch.

Example 1: 한 (han)

Take three letters: ㅎ (h) + ㅏ (a) + ㄴ (n). Because ㅏ is a tall vertical vowel, the consonant goes on its left, and the final consonant tucks underneath:

ㅎ + ㅏ → 하 (ha), then add ㄴ underneath → 한 (han)

Example 2: 글 (geul)

Now ㄱ (g) + ㅡ (eu) + ㄹ (l). Because ㅡ is a flat horizontal vowel, it sits under the consonant, and the final consonant goes under that:

ㄱ on top, ㅡ beneath it → 그 (geu), then ㄹ underneath → 글 (geul)

Put those two blocks side by side and you've just read 한글 (Hangeul), the name of the alphabet itself. Read the blocks from left to right. Inside each block, follow the sound order: initial, vowel, then final, regardless of where the letters sit.

Example 3: 안녕 (annyeong), “hi” (casual)

Two blocks this time:

Block 1: ㅇ (silent here) + ㅏ + ㄴ → 안 (an)
Block 2: ㄴ + ㅕ + ㅇ (an ng at the end) → 녕 (nyeong)

Read them together and you get 안녕 (annyeong), a casual “hi” used with friends, children or people you're close to. Notice the silent ㅇ filling the initial position at the start of 안, while the same letter becomes ng at the end of 녕.

Once this clicks, reading Korean stops being decoding and starts being reading. You stop spelling out letters and start seeing whole syllables at a glance.

Pronunciation Gotchas Worth Knowing Early

A few things will make more sense if you meet them now rather than being surprised by them later:

• Final consonants are unreleased and often neutralised. Korean spelling allows many consonant letters in the final position, but in ordinary pronunciation they reduce to seven basic final sounds. ㄱ, ㄲ and ㅋ share an unreleased k sound; ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ and ㅎ share an unreleased t; and ㅂ and ㅍ share an unreleased p. The other four are broadly n (ㄴ), l (ㄹ), m (ㅁ) and ng (ㅇ). Following sounds can change these again, so treat this as your starting map.
• Sounds can move across blocks. When a 받침 is followed by a vowel-initial grammatical ending or particle, its consonant is often pronounced as the start of the next syllable. Word boundaries, consonant clusters and other sound rules create exceptions, but you'll hear this pattern constantly.
• Aspiration is real. ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ and ㅊ have a stronger burst of air than their plain partners ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ and ㅈ. Plain consonants can still carry some aspiration at the start of a word, so breath isn't the only cue. Your hand will usually feel more air from the aspirated series, but use native audio as the final guide.

None of these are things to master before you start. They're things to recognise so that when a word sounds slightly different from how it's spelled, you nod instead of panicking.

A Sensible Order for Learning Hangul

Plenty of charts throw all 40 modern consonant and vowel letters at you at once. Don't learn them that way. Here's the order I'd actually use:

1. Learn the 10 basic vowels first. They're the simplest shapes and every syllable needs one. Use the four “add a stroke for y” pairs to cut down the memorising.
2. Add the 14 basic consonants. Lean on the mouth-shape logic (ㄴ is the tongue, ㅁ is the lips) and the visual mnemonics that work for you.
3. Practise building blocks straight away. As soon as you know a few consonants and vowels, start stacking them: 가, 나, 다, 라. Reading is a skill, and the only way to build it is to read.
4. Layer in the double consonants and compound vowels. Once the basics flow, these slot in quickly because you already understand the system.
5. Read everything in sight. Hangul's letter system is consistent enough that you can start working through shop signs, song titles, menus and band names quickly. Pronunciation still changes with context, but that early payoff is what makes Hangul so satisfying to learn.

Use romanisation as a short bridge, then shift to the real letters as soon as you can. Read them slowly if you need to. The less you depend on the English version, the sooner you'll start recognising Hangul on its own terms.

Where to Go After the Alphabet

Once the letters feel comfortable, the fun really begins, because now you can actually use the language. Build out from here:

• Stock up on vocabulary with our core Korean words you need first.
• Get talking with these practical Korean phrases for your first conversation.
• Learn to count in Korean, which (fair warning) uses two whole number systems.
• Get a feel for how Korean sentences move with our guide to Korean verb conjugation.
• And for a taste of the culture baked into the language, enjoy these Korean proverbs.

Learning to read Hangul is the perfect first win, but the real goal is speaking it with actual people. That's the heart of how I approach every language: using it out loud with real people from very early on. If you want a structured way to go from your first Korean words to real conversations, with weekly coaching calls and a group of fellow learners alongside you, that's exactly what we do inside the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp.

For now, though, you've got the whole modern Korean alphabet in front of you. Pick the vowels, then the consonants, then start stacking them into blocks. Give it a focused morning, as the old commentary suggested, and see how much you can read by lunch.