There are 11,172 possible Korean syllable blocks. That number scares people off before they start. It should not, because you never learn 11,172 of anything. You learn 24 letters, and the blocks build themselves.
The second number matters just as much and almost nobody mentions it. No matter which of the sixteen consonants you write at the bottom of a block, only seven sounds can actually come out. That single fact explains most of the confusion beginners have when a word looks nothing like it sounds.
This page is built to be printed. The tables below are the whole alphabet, the six block shapes, and the seven final sounds. Put it beside you and read Korean signs out loud until you stop needing it.
The whole alphabet in two tables
Hangul has 24 basic letters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Add 5 tense consonants and 11 compound vowels and you have all 40. That is the entire writing system.
The romanisation below is the Revised Romanization of Korean, released on 7 July 2000 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. It is what you see on Korean road signs, station names and passports, so it is the version worth learning.
Consonants
Each consonant has two romanisations because Korean consonants change depending on where they sit in the block. The first column is the sound at the start of a block; the second is the sound at the bottom.
| Letter | Start of block | Bottom of block | Rough English |
|---|---|---|---|
| ㄱ | g | k | between g and k |
| ㄲ | kk | k | tense, tight k |
| ㅋ | k | k | k with a puff of air |
| ㄴ | n | n | n in no |
| ㄷ | d | t | between d and t |
| ㄸ | tt | — | tense, tight t |
| ㅌ | t | t | t with a puff of air |
| ㄹ | r | l | between r and l |
| ㅁ | m | m | m in me |
| ㅂ | b | p | between b and p |
| ㅃ | pp | — | tense, tight p |
| ㅍ | p | p | p with a puff of air |
| ㅅ | s | t | s in see |
| ㅆ | ss | t | tense, hissed s |
| ㅈ | j | t | j in jam |
| ㅉ | jj | — | tense j |
| ㅊ | ch | t | ch in chair |
| ㅇ | silent | ng | see the note below |
| ㅎ | h | t | h in hat |
ㅇ is the one that trips everyone up. At the start of a block it makes no sound at all — it is a placeholder that fills the consonant slot so the block keeps its square shape. 아 is ㅇ plus ㅏ and is simply read a. Only at the bottom of a block does ㅇ become the ng in song.
The rule underneath the two columns is short enough to memorise: ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ and ㄹ are g, d, b and r at the start of a word or before a vowel, and k, t, p and l before another consonant or at the end. That is why 벽 (wall) is written byeok and not byeog.
Vowels
| Simple | Roman | Compound | Roman |
|---|---|---|---|
| ㅏ | a | ㅑ | ya |
| ㅓ | eo | ㅕ | yeo |
| ㅗ | o | ㅛ | yo |
| ㅜ | u | ㅠ | yu |
| ㅡ | eu | ㅘ | wa |
| ㅣ | i | ㅙ | wae |
| ㅐ | ae | ㅝ | wo |
| ㅔ | e | ㅞ | we |
| ㅚ | oe | ㅒ | yae |
| ㅟ | wi | ㅖ | ye |
| — | — | ㅢ | ui |
Two pairs cause almost all the spelling mistakes learners make. ㅓ (eo) and ㅗ (o) are different vowels but sound close to an untrained ear, and ㅐ (ae) and ㅔ (e) are pronounced almost identically by most Koreans today yet are never interchangeable in writing. You will have to learn which words take which.
Notice the pattern in the compound column: adding a second short stroke turns ㅏ into ㅑ, ㅓ into ㅕ, ㅗ into ㅛ, ㅜ into ㅠ. One extra stroke, one extra y sound. The alphabet was designed, not inherited, and this is what design looks like.
Letters stack into squares
This is the part that makes Korean look impossible and is actually the easiest thing about it. Korean does not run letters left to right in a line. It packs each syllable into a square block. Read the block, not the letters.
| Block | Built from | Reads as | Where the vowel goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 가 | ㄱ + ㅏ | ga | tall vowel, sits on the right |
| 고 | ㄱ + ㅗ | go | wide vowel, sits underneath |
| 과 | ㄱ + ㅘ | gwa | compound vowel wraps around |
| 각 | ㄱ + ㅏ + ㄱ | gak | final consonant on the floor |
| 곡 | ㄱ + ㅗ + ㄱ | gok | three tiers, top to bottom |
| 값 | ㄱ + ㅏ + ㅂㅅ | gap | two letters share the floor |
The logic is simply this: vertical vowels (ㅏ ㅓ ㅑ ㅕ ㅣ) go to the right of the consonant, horizontal vowels (ㅗ ㅜ ㅛ ㅠ ㅡ) go below it, and if there is a final consonant it always goes on the bottom line. Six shapes, no exceptions worth worrying about on day one.
Try it on a word you already know. 한국 is ㅎ+ㅏ+ㄴ and ㄱ+ㅜ+ㄱ — han-guk, Korea. 서울 is ㅅ+ㅓ and ㅇ+ㅜ+ㄹ — Seo-ul, and the ㅇ in the second block is the silent placeholder again.
Sixteen letters, seven sounds
Here is the rule that unlocks listening. Korean allows sixteen different single consonants at the bottom of a block, but they collapse into only seven actual sounds.
| Written at the bottom | Actually pronounced |
|---|---|
| ㄱ ㅋ ㄲ | k |
| ㄴ | n |
| ㄷ ㅌ ㅅ ㅆ ㅈ ㅊ ㅎ | t |
| ㄹ | l |
| ㅁ | m |
| ㅂ ㅍ | p |
| ㅇ | ng |
Look at the third row. Seven different letters, one sound. That is why 옷 (clothes), 낮 (daytime) and 낫 (sickle) all end the same way when spoken. When you hear a Korean word and cannot spell it, this row is usually the reason.
The consolation is that it works in your favour when reading aloud. You do not need to produce seven distinct endings — you need seven, and you already have all of them in English.
Why the alphabet is this tidy
Most writing systems grew by accident over centuries. Hangul did not. It was completed in 1443 and promulgated in 1446 under King Sejong, designed deliberately so that ordinary people who had no time for classical Chinese could read and write.
That intent is still visible in the shapes. The consonant ㄱ is a sketch of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth; ㅁ is the shape of the mouth; ㅅ is a tooth. Add a stroke to ㄱ and you get ㅋ, the same sound with more air. Double it and you get ㄲ, the same sound held tight. The system is a diagram of your own mouth.
UNESCO named its international literacy award the King Sejong Literacy Prize, established in 1989 and awarded each year for work in literacy. The alphabet's reputation as a teaching tool is not a Korean tourism claim; it is why the prize carries that name.
Where to practise for free
You do not need to pay anyone to learn this part. The Korean government funds the King Sejong Institute, founded in 2007. As of 2026 it runs 273 locations across 89 countries, and in 2025 roughly 239,000 people studied Korean through it online and offline. It opened with 740 students, which tells you how the demand has moved.
Its learning-materials portal is free and available in English. That is the link at the bottom of this page.
A practical order for your first week, if you want one:
- Day 1–2. The 10 simple vowels only. Say them out loud in the order ㅏ ㅓ ㅗ ㅜ ㅡ ㅣ.
- Day 3–4. The 14 basic consonants, paired with ㅏ. 가 나 다 라 마 바 사 아 자 차 카 타 파 하. This is the Korean alphabetical order — you will meet it in dictionaries and menus.
- Day 5. The six block shapes. Write your own name in Hangul.
- Day 6. Final consonants and the seven sounds.
- Day 7. Read subway station signs. They are romanised underneath, so you can check yourself instantly.
Reading station signs is genuinely the best drill available. Every Seoul metro sign gives you Hangul and Revised Romanization side by side, which means the whole city is an answer key.
What this page does not tell you
- Sound-change rules between blocks. Korean consonants shift when they meet across a block boundary — 한국말 is not read letter by letter. Those rules come after the alphabet, not with it.
- The double final consonants. Clusters like ㄳ ㄵ ㄺ ㄻ have their own simplification rules. Worth leaving until you can read comfortably.
- Regional pronunciation. The tables here describe standard Seoul Korean. Busan and Jeju will not sound identical.
- We could not open the National Institute of the Korean Language's own romanization page directly while writing this, so the tables follow the published Revised Romanization scheme rather than a fresh copy of that page. If you spot a discrepancy, the Institute's version wins.
The short version
- 24 basic letters — 14 consonants, 10 vowels. 40 including tense consonants and compound vowels.
- Letters stack into square blocks, one block per syllable. Six shapes cover everything.
- ㅇ is silent at the top of a block and ng at the bottom.
- ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ ㄹ are g d b r at the start and k t p l at the end.
- Sixteen possible final consonants produce only seven sounds: k, n, t, l, m, p, ng.
- Created 1443, promulgated 1446, designed on purpose to be learnable.
- The King Sejong Institute teaches it free in 89 countries.
If you are working out whether to come here for longer, we have also written about studying in South Korea and what the official numbers really say, about Korean public holidays and how substitute days work, and about the Seoul subway rules that decide what your trip costs — the network where you will do most of your sign-reading practice.
OFFICIAL SITE — Nuri King Sejong Institute, free Korean learning materials
Sources
- Revised Romanization of Korean — scheme released 7 July 2000 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, developed by the National Academy of the Korean Language
- King Sejong Institute Foundation — network size, country count and learner numbers, reported July 2026
- UNESCO — King Sejong Literacy Prize, established 1989
Checked 17 August 2026. Romanization follows the Revised Romanization scheme; other systems such as McCune–Reischauer spell the same words differently.
