In the Korean alphabet the different Hangul letters aren’t written one after another like in English. Instead they’re stacked into little blocks for each syllable.
For example, the word Hangul isn’t written like:
It’s instead written as two syllable blocks like:
Consonants Plus Vowels
Combining the different Hangul letters together is easy. The first common type of combination is simply one consonant and one vowel.
Here are some examples:
Ka
The consonant here is “k” and the vowel is “a” which gives this syllable a “ka” sound.
Sa
The consonant here is “s” and the vowel is “a” which gives this syllable a “sa” sound.
Mo
The consonant here is “m” and the vowel is “o” which gives this syllable a “mo” sound.
Ri
The consonant here is “r” and the vowel is “i” which gives this syllable a “ri” sound.
Consonants Plus Vowels Plus Another Consonant
Next we have syllables made up of three Hangul letters. These are simply consonant plus vowel plus consonant.
Here are some examples:
Tal
The first consonant here is “t” followed by the vowel “a” and ending with the consonant “l” for a “tal” sound.
Neun
The first consonant here is “n” followed by the vowel “eu” and ending with the consonant “n” for a “neun” sound.
Ram
The first consonant here is “r” followed by the vowel “a” and ending with the consonant “m” for a “ram” sound.
Mot
The first consonant here is “m” followed by the vowel “o” and ending with the consonant “t” for a “mot” sound.
When writing these 3 character syllables you have to remember to pay attention to the sounds of the consonants. Many Hangul consonants have a different sound if they’re at the start of a syllable and a different sound at the end of a syllable.
You’ll also notice that these characters are read from left to right and top to bottom.
Sometimes you write the characters in a vertical stack of three Hangul letters and some times you write two beside each other with the third one below them.
As you get more familiar with writing the Korean alphabet you’ll start to get a feel for how the letters fit together properly.
Hangul Syllables Starting with Vowels
The next type of syllable you’ll encounter in Korean is a syllable that begins with a vowel. These can be either just one vowel or a vowel followed by a consonant.
However things are a little different for characters that start with vowels.
You can’t have a syllable block starting with a vowel for some reason so instead you have to put the silent character ieung (ㅇ) before the vowel.
Here are some examples:
a
This is simply the silent ieung character plus the vowel “a” and the sound of this syllable is “a”
yo
This is simply the silent ieung character plus the vowel “yo” and the sound of this syllable is “yo”
eum
This has the silent ieung character, then the vowel “eu” and it ends with the consonant “m”. The sound of this syllable is “eum”
yeok
This has the silent ieung character, then the vowel yeo and it ends with the consonant “k”. The sound of this syllable is “yeok”
Hangul Syllables with 4 Characters
In some cases you’ll even see syllable blocks written with 4 Hangul characters although these are not as common as the 2 or 3 character blocks.
Examples of Words Written in the Korean Alphabet
Here are some examples of Korean words written in Hangul. You should be able to read or sound them out easily now.
If you were able to read these words then congratulations, you’re well on your way to becoming fluent in Korean!