Hangeul or 한글 (the Korean alphabet) literally means "the Korean writing."
In 한글, the Korean alphabet, consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels.
- Cosonants: ㄱㄴㄷㄹㅁㅂㅅㅇㅈㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ
- Vowels: ㅏㅑㅓㅕㅗㅛㅜㅠㅡㅣ
In addition, there are 5 double consonants and 11 double vowels.
- Double consonants: ㄲㄸㅃㅆㅉ
- Double vowels: ㅐㅒㅔㅖㅘㅙㅚㅝㅞㅟㅢ
Additionally, there are 11 final double consonants.
- Final double consonants: ㄳ ㄵ ㄶ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ ㅄ
You will get to learn these basic consonants and vowels, learning how to read, write and pronounce.
For the purpose of learning the alphabet, I highly recommend the following resources to help you with familiarizing yourself with the consonants and vowels in 한글.
Click on the alphabet to listen to their corresponding pronunciations.
(Provided by Korean language learning online, Sogang Unversity)
자음[Consonants]
ㄱ = g
ㄴ = n
ㄷ = d
ㄹ = l, r (ㄹ is a sound somewhere between l and r)
ㅁ = m
ㅂ = b
ㅅ = s
ㅇ = "no sound" when used as a first consonant, "ng" when used as a final consonant.
ㅈ = j
ㅊ = ch
ㅋ = k
ㅌ = t
ㅍ = p
ㅎ = h
모음[Vowels]
ㅏ = a
ㅑ = ya
ㅓ = eo
ㅕ = yeo
ㅗ = o
ㅛ = yo
ㅜ = u
ㅠ = yu
ㅡ = eu
ㅣ = i
쌍자음[Double consonants]
ㄲ = gg Click on the link to hear the difference between the sounds of ㄱ, ㄲ and ㅋ.
ㄸ = dd Note the difference in sounds; ㄷ, ㄸ and ㅌ.
ㅃ = bb Note the difference in sounds;ㅂ, ㅃ and ㅍ.
ㅆ = ss Note the difference in sounds; ㅅ and ㅆ
ㅉ = jj Note the difference in sounds; ㅈ, ㅉ and ㅊ
More links: ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ
쌍모음[Double Vowels]
ㅐ = ae
ㅒ = yae (rarely used)
ㅔ = e
ㅖ = ye
ㅘ = wa
ㅙ = wae
ㅚ = oe
ㅝ = wo
ㅞ = we (rarely used)
ㅟ = wi
ㅢ = ui
● How to form a character
There are two ways of making a character, using the consonants and vowels as building blocks.
- Initial consonant + Vowel
- Initial consonant + Vowel + Final consonant
- 가 = ㄱ + ㅏ = ga
- 너 = ㄴ + ㅓ = neo
- 도 = ㄷ + ㅗ = do
- 루 = ㄹ + ㅜ = lu/ru
- 므 = ㅁ + ㅡ = meu
- 비 = ㅂ + ㅣ = bi
- 각 = ㄱ + ㅏ + ㄱ = gag
- 넌= ㄴ + ㅓ + ㄴ = neon
- 돗 = ㄷ + ㅗ + ㅅ = dod
- 를 = ㄹ + ㅡ + ㄹ = leul/reul
- 쟁 = ㅈ + ㅐ + ㅇ = jaeng
Characters with final consonants of ㄱ, ㄲ and ㅋ, all sound the same. Thus 각, 갂 and 갘 will sound exactly the same.
For example,
국, 엌, 밖 Their final consonants all sound the same. Click on the links to hear.
Now, below is a list of the final consonants and their respective sounds.
- ㄱ/ㄲ/ㅋ = ㄱ
- ㅂ/ㅃ/ㅍ = ㅂ
- ㄷ/ㅌ/ㅅ/ㅆ/ㅈ/ㅊ/ㅎ = ㄷ
- ㄴ= ㄴ
- ㄹ= ㄹ
- ㅁ= ㅁ
- ㅇ= ㅇ
- 낚시 [낙시] = fishing
- 부엌 [부억] = kitchen
- 앞 [압] = front
- 씨앗 [씨앋] = seed
- 낮 [낟] = day
For a more detailed explanation and audio files, click here.
When the initial consonant of second and/or third characters is ㅇ, for example, 돌이 and 만악이, the sound of the final consonant of each letter is pronounced with the next vowel. Because ㅇ has no sound, 돌이 is pronounced as 도리 and 만악이 as 마나기. These are just made-up words to show you how these work.
- 돌이[도리]
- 만악이[마나기]
쌍받침[Final double consonants]
There are also 11 additional final double consonants. Their sounds are as follows. As you can see, the first consonant of the double consonants is pronounced. (except ㄺ = ㄱ,ㄻ = ㅁ and ㄿ = ㅂ) I do not recommend that you learn these exhaustively right away because that is a hard work and I rarely employed them in my grammar lessons anyway. So it would be better to come back to these when you come across them from time to time.
- ㄳ = ㄱ
- ㄵ = ㄴ
- ㄶ = ㄴ
- ㄺ = ㄱ
- ㄻ = ㅁ
- ㄼ = ㄹ
- ㄽ = ㄹ
- ㄾ = ㄹ
- ㄿ = ㅂ
- ㅀ = ㄹ
- ㅄ = ㅂ
삯 [삭] = amount
앉다 [안따] = sit
많다 [만타] = many
읽다 [익따] = read
삶다 [삼따] = boil
넓다 [널따] = spacious
외곬 [외골] = a single way
핥다 [할따] = lick
읊다 [읍따] = recite (a poem)
잃다 [일타] = lose (a thing)
값 [갑] = price
Excellent pronunciation lessons by Sogang Unversity (Korean language learning online)
Source: http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/
For writing practices,
Sources:
Slow but STEADY: http://cyjn.com/165
키드앤틴, KidnTeen: http://www.kidnteen.com/hannnum/han.asp
34 comments:
why is 돗 = ㄷ + ㅗ + ㅅ = dod
the ㅅ pronounce d not s
ㄷ/ㅌ/ㅅ/ㅆ/ㅈ/ㅊ/ㅎ = ㄷ
This is just a rule. So 돋, 돝, 돗, 돘, 돚, 돛 and 돟 all sound the same. Likewise 독, 돆 and 돜 sound the same and 돕 and 돞 sound the same.
I still can't hear the difference between ㄱ and ㅋ. I lived in Korea for years and still don't really get the difference between ㄱ,ㅋ,ㄲ.
It must be my tin Anglo ears, but it seems like it should be an increasing 'hardness' of g,k,kk but in practice (speaking) ㄲ is more like a soft g, and ㄱ and ㄲ are indistinguishable. I have the same problems with ㄷ,ㅌ,ㄸ. ^-^
All explanations appreciated but likely treated with bemusement.
ㄱ is the softest and then ㄲ and ㅋ is the harshest sound. Have you tried the link to their pronunciations?
Yes. I found that most people whose mother tongue is English find it hard to distinguish the difference between ㄲ and ㅋ.
The best approach would be just keep listening,, lol That's my method to learning a foreign language.^^
how do you write JEZZA in korean ?? . thank you
What's JEZZA? It could be written as 제자 or 제짜.
i dont get how to pronounce ㄹ. when do you pronounce it as "l"? when do you pronounce it as "r"?
Hi, Shintaro.
ㄹ does not sound like neither of "l" and "r".
ㄹ sounds like something between "l" and "r". I recommend you listen to audios that contain ㄹ.
For those of you who are Japanese or who learned some Japanese, it may help to notice that ㄹ is almost identical to the Japanese "r" sound.
Therefore,
라 = ら (ra)
로 = ろ (ro)
루 = る (ru)
레 = れ (re)
When ㄹ is used as a final consonant, it sounds like "ㅣ".
For example,
밀 = mil
빌 = bil
일 = il
팔 = pal
When the next syllable has the initial consonant of ㄹ, it is also pronounced as "l". ie. two ㄹ's are together.
For example,
빌라 = billa
살림 = sallim
굴레 = gulle
However, when ㄹ is used as an initial consonant without another ㄹ preceding it, it is pronounced just like normal ㄹ sound.
비라 = bira
사림 = sarim
구레 = gure
Thanks so much. Your site is very useful. And the website of Sokang you attached is also very good. I learn Korean by myself just with two those website. Thanks again!
Hi Luke, in your examples for making words with three letters, you put the letter for d+o+s = dod. Typo? Because it confused me rather.
돗 = ㄷ + ㅗ + ㅅ = dod (??)
돗 = ㄷ + ㅗ + ㅅ = dod
if read it on korean it'll be like
ㄱ = g (giyeok)
ㄴ = n (nieun)
ㄷ = d (digeut)
ㄹ = l, r (ㄹ is a sound somewhere between l and r) (rieul)
ㅁ = m (mieum)
ㅂ = b (bieup)
ㅅ = s (siot)
ㅇ = "no sound" when used as a first consonant, "ng" when used as a final consonant. (ieung)
ㅈ = j (jieut)
ㅊ = ch (chieut)
ㅋ = k (kieuk)
ㅌ = t (tieut)
ㅍ = p (pieup)
ㅎ = h (hieut)
so
돗 = ㄷ + ㅗ + ㅅ = dod
it sounds dod/dot causes ㅅ (siot) is final word there... so it'll be dot... (ㅅ sounds T when it's being a final word)
hey y did u take away d writing korean alphabet pdf file? =/
pdf files have been restored.
hi, thanks for the lessons! i have a question,
for the final consonants, how do we know which one to use when writing, since some of them of more than one for each sound?
Hi,
My answer is, 'You need to learn them.'
Just like in English, for example,
laugh is not spelled "laf"
There are whether & weather.
Likewise, you just need to learn the final consonants.
Often though, there is a pattern.
In the examples below,
삯 [삭] = amount
앉다 [안따] = sit
많다 [만타] = many
읽다 [익따] = read
삶다 [삼따] = boil
넓다 [널따] = spacious
외곬 [외골] = a single way
핥다 [할따] = lick
읊다 [읍따] = recite (a poem)
잃다 [일타] = lose (a thing)
값 [갑] = price
The ones on the left-hand are ones with the correct "spelling."
They are the ones you use in writing.
The ones in the brackets are "how they're pronounced." It is my way of writing their pronunciations.
Like in English dictionary,
laugh (läf)
Hope this makes sense.
mm, i'm kinda confuse at this part : Final double consonants.
what is the deifferent of Final double consonants and the other consonants?
and when are we going to use this Final double consonants??
and why we must use Final double consonants like: 삯 [삭] = amount we can just use the '삭' right? please answer. i need this. hehe thanks :)
sorry for a lot of this question :)
hi, i have just found this site.. i'm starting to learn korean as well.. i just know some of the characters. i know eventually i will be able to memorize them all if i keep on studying.. i just have a question.. i have listened to the sounds of every character you've posted on this page.. but i keep hearing ㄱ pronounced as K not G.. athough i notice on some readings that sometimes G and K may be the same, but you have emphasized on this page that ㄱ is for G and ㅋ is for K
so I have been wondering, do the vowels have names? Or do we just call them by their sound? *is confused* thank you for your time!
Hi Sarah,
Vowels don't have names. We just call them by their sounds. :)
Hi Regina,
In the case of 삵[삭], it's just a spelling issue.
For example, in English, we write 'drought' rather than 'drout'.
Typo* 삯 means 'a fare', 'fee', or 'charge' but it's rarely used nowadays.
Hi Kongju
Many find that ㄱ sounds k but the reason I emphasize that ㄱ is g is because of the Romanised spelling and the differentiation issue.
As ㄱ and ㅋ sound different, I just want to make sure that they sound different.
But it's OK if you hear ㄱ as k. But I would like to make sure that you differentiate ㄱ from ㅋ and vice versa when hearing them.
When I see a Romanized Korean, I thought that it was supposed to be read as how it was written (well like English.. in some way....phonetic) but to my horror it is not.. like ㄱ when romanized usually using 'G', but was supposed to be pronounce as 'K' (soft k i think) especially after listening to a lot of kpop songs
ㄱ sounds like "soft k" but not actually "hard k" as in "king."
For example,
김 = Gim (seaweed)
킴 = Kim (the most common surname in Korea)
Luke, I thought Kim the surname is spelt 김, like the singer 김재중?
Hi MzTVXQ,
Yes, you're right. Kim = 김.
I put that comment up to show the difference between ㄱ and ㅋ.
I probably should've given a different example, like Go and Ko in Korea.
It's a good site with great article about korean language, I'm beginner who want to learn Korean Language more and more. I'm just started for two days, but I'm still don't understand the difference to speak ㅈ and ㅊ. Need ur explanation please,
Thank you.
love letter .
Hi Nana,
To give you the simplest explanation for the difference between ㅈ and ㅊ.
ㅈ is like "j" while ㅊ is like "ch".
Therefore,
자 = Ja
차 = Cha
주스(Juseu) = Juice
초(cho) = seconds
It may also help to listen to their pronunciations repetitively.
Try the following links:
http://www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hangeul_step_3
http://www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hangeul_step_4
Hello,
I have a question about the pronunciation of the word “지금(요)” .
I heard people pronounced it like : 지금뇨 (ji-geum-Nyo), why the 요 becomes 뇨 (NYO) ?
Thank you .
Hi Anonymous,
지금요 is pronounced like 지금뇨 because of the ease of the pronunciation.
When we say 지금 and 요 separately, we can pronounced them properly, but when we pronounce them together quickly, 지금요, you'd notice that 요 kind of sounds like 뇨.
I think it's probably due to the fact that 금's final consonant "m" is translated to the next character 요(yo).
So Ji-Geum-Yo → Ji-GeumNyo
Additionally, 지금요 should be written as 지금이요 in written Korean. However, when we speak we say 지금요 as it's simpler to pronounce.
Hope this provided a bit of explanation for it!
Thank you so much Luke for your excellent explanation. Have a wonderful day.
i'm a confused by the final consonant part. is 못에요 pronounced as moteyo or moseyo? i've heard people pronounce it as moteyo, but according to your rules, it should be moseyo.
Hi Anonymous,
I think you're referring to 못해요, which means "I can't do it."
못해요 is pronounced 모태요(mo-te-yo).
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