The Korean Alphabet

Learning Korean for the first time!

For a video lesson on the Korean alphabet, please see below. :)

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

Please also refer to the audio recording of different Korean consonant-vowel combinations that I produced with my own voice, here, Korean alphabet - Consonants and Vowels.

You will get to learn these basic consonants and vowels, learning how to read, write and pronounce.

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.

1. Initial consonant + Vowel
2. Initial consonant + Vowel + Final consonant

 1. Examples

• 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

2. Examples

• 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

For example,

• 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]

For more examples on this pronunciation, click on the link.


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

Eg.

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/

Also, check out the Korean Wiki Project for additional explanations of the Korean consonants and vowels and respective pronunciations.

For writing practices,

• Consonants
• Vowels
• Consonants + Vowels

Sources:
Slow but STEADY: http://cyjn.com/165
키드앤틴, KidnTeen: http://www.kidnteen.com/hannnum/han.asp