Korean/Alphabet

[] Other languages... Learn Korean (Introduction) Reading and writing — Course • Principles of Orthography • Essential Pronunciation Rules • Advanced Pronunciation Rules Conversation — 1단계: Beginner • 2단계: High beginner • 3단계: Low intermediate • 4단계: High intermediate • 5단계: Low advanced • 6단계: Advanced Grammar

Introduction

The Korean alphabet, known as Hangeul (한글, "great script"), is considered one of the most efficient and logical writing systems in the world. While most modern alphabets evolved from earlier hieroglyphics or ideographs, 한글 (Hangeul) was created specifically to make it easy to read and write the Korean language.

Although the characters of 한글 (Hangeul) may appear to be ideograms like the traditional Hanja (한자, 漢字), they really form an alphabet. Each block character represents one syllable and is made up of individual jamo (자모), much like the letters in the Latin alphabet. 한글 (Hangeul) is easy to learn because it has only 24 basic jamo.

See Wikipedia's entries on Hangul and Hanja for more about the history and design of the Korean writing systems.

Consonants

14 Korean consonants

Below are the consonants (자음) of the Korean alphabet. You don't need to memorize them yet because individual lessons will cover each letter in detail. For now, just be aware that the Korean alphabet has ten basic consonants and nine variations on them:

Consonant jamo

Basic 예사소리	Letter (jamo)	ㄱ	ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄹ	ㅁ	ㅂ	ㅅ	ㅇ	ㅈ	ㅎ
	Romanization Pronunciation	g or k [g] or [k]	n [n]	d or t [d] or [t]	r or l [ɾ] or [l]	m [m]	b or p [b] or [p]	s [s]	- or ng silent or [ŋ]	j or ch [ʥ] or [ʨ]	h [h]
Aspirated 거센소리	Letter (jamo)	ㅋ		ㅌ			ㅍ			ㅊ
	Romanization Pronunciation	k [kʰ]		t [tʰ]			p [pʰ]			ch [ʨʰ]
Tense 된소리	Letter (jamo)	ㄲ		ㄸ			ㅃ	ㅆ		ㅉ
	Romanization Pronunciation	gg or kk [k͈]		dd or tt [t͈]			bb or pp [p͈]	ss [s͈]		jj [ʨ͈]

Notice that some consonants have two different pronunciations (e.g. ㄱ pronounced as /g/ or /k/ depending on context). Also, some are "aspirated" and some are "tense". Those details and more are explained in Essential Pronunciation Rules.

Vowels

6 Korean regular vowels: diphthongs in red

There are 21 letters used to represent vowels: six basic vowels, nine combinations of those six basic vowels (which originally were all pronounced as diphthongs), and six vowels with an extra short dash representing the initial y [j] sound.

Vowel jamo

Letter (jamo)	ㅏ	ㅑ	ㅓ	ㅕ	ㅗ	ㅛ	ㅜ	ㅠ	ㅡ	ㅣ
Romanization Pronunciation	a [a]	ya [ja]	eo [ʌ]	yeo [jʌ]	o [o]	yo [jo]	u [u]	yu [ju]	eu [ɯ]	i [i]
Letter (jamo)	ㅐ	ㅒ	ㅔ	ㅖ	ㅚ		ㅟ		ㅢ
Romanization Pronunciation	ae [ɛ]	yae [jɛ]	e [e]	ye [je]	oe [wø]		wi [wi]		ui [ɰi]
Letter (jamo)	ㅘ		ㅝ
Romanization Pronunciation	wa [wa]		wo [wʌ]
Letter (jamo)	ㅙ		ㅞ
Romanization Pronunciation	wae [wɛ]		we [we]

End of introduction

To learn how to read, write, and pronounce each Korean letter, proceed to the Read, Write, and Pronounce Korean course.

[] Other languages... Learn Korean (Introduction) Reading and writing — Course • Principles of Orthography • Essential Pronunciation Rules • Advanced Pronunciation Rules Conversation — 1단계: Beginner • 2단계: High beginner • 3단계: Low intermediate • 4단계: High intermediate • 5단계: Low advanced • 6단계: Advanced Grammar