Korean Alphabet (Hangul): 24 Letters Guide with Audio

Why Hangul is easier than you think

Hangul has 24 base letters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Add 5 double consonants and 11 compound vowels for the full chart. That's it. Compare that with English, where 26 letters spawn dozens of irregular spellings, or with Chinese, where literacy demands thousands of characters. Hangul was designed in the 15th century specifically as a phonetic alphabet, and most consonant shapes mimic the position of your tongue and lips when you make the sound. ㄱ traces the back of the tongue lifted to the soft palate. ㅁ shows closed lips. ㅅ shows the gap between teeth.

The grammar of Hangul writing is also stable. Each syllable forms a square block, consonants stack with vowels in predictable patterns, and there are almost no silent letters. Once you know the 40 letters, you can read any Korean word, even ones you've never seen, without guessing.

14 Basic Consonants

Consonants in Hangul change slightly depending on whether they sit at the start or end of a syllable. The romanization column below shows the most common readings. Pick one row at a time, say it out loud, and check the example word.

10 Basic Vowels

Korean vowels come in two halves: a base set (ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ, ㅣ) and the y-prefixed pairs (ㅑ, ㅕ, ㅛ, ㅠ). The y-set is just the base set with a small extra stroke added.

5 Double Consonants

Double consonants (쌍자음) are tense and unaspirated: no puff of air comes out when you say them. They're written by doubling a basic consonant and they show up in many common words.

11 Compound Vowels

Compound vowels combine two basic vowels into one sound. In modern Seoul speech, ㅔ and ㅐ have merged so completely that even native speakers sometimes ask each other which one is meant. Don't sweat the perfect distinction.

Stroke order: how to write Hangul

Hangul follows two simple stroke rules: top to bottom, and left to right. Within a syllable block, write the initial consonant first, then the vowel, then the final consonant if there is one.

• Horizontal strokes go left to right (→).
• Vertical strokes go top to bottom (↓).
• For composite letters like ㅋ or ㅌ, write the simpler shape first, then add the extra stroke.
• Curved strokes start at the top and pull down and around.

Korean elementary schools teach stroke order with grid practice books. You don't need to drill it the same way; just write each letter a few times until your hand remembers the order.

Building syllable blocks

Hangul writes syllables as small square blocks. Every block has at least a consonant (or the silent ㅇ placeholder) and a vowel. A final consonant sits at the bottom.

• ㄱ + ㅏ = 가 (ga)
• ㄱ + ㅏ + ㅁ = 감 (gam, persimmon)
• ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ = 한 (han, Korea / one)
• ㄱ + ㅡ + ㄹ = 글 (geul, writing)
• ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ + ㄱ + ㅡ + ㄹ = 한글 (hangeul, Hangul)

When the vowel is vertical (ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅣ), the consonant sits to its left. When the vowel is horizontal (ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ), the consonant sits on top. This visual rhythm is what makes Korean text look like neat tiles.

Practice with real Korean words

Read each row out loud. The breakdown column shows how the syllable blocks decompose back into individual jamo. Tap any linked word to open its full pronunciation page.

Common questions