How Hangul Works: Consonants, Vowels and Final Consonants

When and why Hangul was made

Hangul is the script created in 1443 by Sejong, the fourth king of Joseon, and published in 1446 under the name Hunminjeongeum. Before that, Koreans wrote by borrowing Chinese characters, which were hard to learn and could not easily capture the sounds of Korean. Hunminjeongeum means "the correct sounds for teaching the people," and the goal of letting anyone learn to read and write was explicit. Hangul is often noted as a script whose creator and design principles are both recorded. Korea celebrates October 9 as Hangul Day.

Twenty-four basic letters

Modern Hangul has 14 basic consonants and 10 basic vowels. Add the double consonants, made by doubling a consonant, and the compound vowels, made by combining vowels, and you get the 19 consonants and 21 vowels actually in use. Letters with similar shapes come in groups, so even a first-time learner can spot the patterns.

• 14 basic consonants: ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ
• 10 basic vowels: ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ
• 5 double consonants: ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ
• 11 compound vowels: ㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅢ

Consonants mirror the shape of speech

The five core consonants are modeled on the shape of the speech organs when making each sound. The rest were made by adding strokes, and the rule is that more strokes mean a stronger sound. Adding a stroke to the g-like ㄱ gives the aspirated ㅋ, and ㄴ leads to ㄷ, which leads to ㅌ. Once you know this principle, the number of shapes you need to memorize drops sharply.

• ㄱ (g/k): the back of the tongue blocking the throat
• ㄴ (n): the tongue tip touching the ridge behind the upper teeth
• ㅁ (m): the shape of the mouth
• ㅅ (s): the shape of a tooth
• ㅇ (silent or ng): the shape of the throat

Vowels: heaven, earth and human

Vowels were made by combining three elements: a round dot for heaven, a horizontal line ㅡ for earth and a vertical line ㅣ for a human. Today the dot has become a short stroke, giving shapes like ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅗ and ㅜ. One short stroke makes a basic vowel; two make ㅑ, ㅕ, ㅛ and ㅠ, which add a light y sound in front. If you can tell which way the short stroke points, you can read all ten vowels quickly.

Letters are stacked into blocks

Instead of lining letters up side by side like the alphabet, Hangul gathers the consonants and vowel of one syllable into a square block. The vowel's shape decides where the consonant goes. When a syllable has no initial sound, ㅇ is written as a placeholder, which is why syllables starting with a vowel, like 아, 오 and 이, also carry ㅇ. This system can produce 11,172 syllable blocks in total.

• Vertical vowels (ㅏ ㅓ ㅣ etc.): consonant on the left, as in ga, neo, mi
• Horizontal vowels (ㅗ ㅜ ㅡ etc.): consonant on top, as in go, nu, meu
• A final consonant goes at the bottom, as in gak, non, mom
• No initial sound: write ㅇ, as in a, o, i

Final consonants and seven sounds

A consonant written at the bottom of a block is called batchim, a final consonant. Many consonants can appear there, but they are actually pronounced as one of seven sounds: k, n, t, l, m, p and ng. For example, the ㅋ at the end of bueok, kitchen, sounds like k, and the ㅅ at the end of ot, clothes, sounds like t. In final position, ㅇ is no longer silent but sounds like ng. Final sounds end with the mouth closed or the tongue held in place, so do not worry if they are hard to hear at first.

Linking sounds and word spacing

When a syllable with a final consonant is followed by one starting with ㅇ, the final consonant carries over and becomes the next syllable's initial sound. That is why hanguk plus eo, the Korean language, is heard as han-gu-geo, and eum plus ak, music, as eu-mak. If words you hear seem different from how they are written once you can read letter by letter, this rule is usually why. Unlike Japanese, Korean also puts spaces between words. Particles attach to the word before them and the space comes after, so following the spaces helps you find the phrases in a sentence.

An order for first-time learners

Hangul has few rules, so with focus you can reach the point of reading aloud in a short time. Understanding meaning comes after that, so aim first to read signs and menus out loud.

• Learn the 10 basic vowels by the direction of the short stroke
• Learn the five core consonants and the add-a-stroke principle
• Read blocks without final consonants, then move on to those with them
• Try reading menus, signs and subway station names aloud