Kindergarten - Level K-1
Lesson 1: The Korean Alphabet
(한글 자모)
24 Letters. That's All.
English has 26 letters. Korean has 24 — 14 consonants and 10 vowels.
Once you know them, you can read any Korean word out loud, even if you don't
know what it means yet.
Every letter has a name and a sound, just like
English "bee" is the name and /b/ is the sound. Let's meet all of them.
The 14 Consonants (자음)
The shapes copy your mouth and tongue as you make the sound.
ㄱ
기역
"g / k"
ㄴ
니은
"n"
ㄷ
디귿
"d / t"
ㄹ
리을
"r / l"
ㅁ
미음
"m"
ㅂ
비읍
"b / p"
ㅅ
시옷
"s"
ㅇ
이응
"silent / ng"
ㅈ
지읒
"j"
ㅊ
치읓
"ch"
ㅋ
키읔
"k"
ㅌ
티읕
"t"
ㅍ
피읖
"p"
ㅎ
히읗
"h"
Watch ㅇ — it is silent at the start of a syllable, but says "ng" at the bottom.
The 10 Vowels (모음)
Built from three pieces: a dot (sky ·), a flat line (earth ㅡ) and a standing line (person ㅣ).
ㅏ
아
"ah"
ㅑ
야
"yah"
ㅓ
어
"eo"
ㅕ
여
"yeo"
ㅗ
오
"oh"
ㅛ
요
"yo"
ㅜ
우
"oo"
ㅠ
유
"yoo"
ㅡ
으
"eu"
ㅣ
이
"ee"
Add a second stroke and you add a "y" sound: ㅏ → ㅑ, ㅓ → ㅕ, ㅗ → ㅛ, ㅜ → ㅠ.
Letters Stack Into Blocks
Korean letters are never written in a straight line like English. They stack into a square syllable block, and every block must start with a consonant and contain a vowel.
Tall vowels sit on the right
ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅣ are tall, so the consonant goes to their left.
Wide vowels sit underneath
ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ are wide, so the consonant sits on top of them.
A third letter goes at the bottom
That bottom consonant is called a 받침 (batchim). You'll study it properly in Grade 1.
Read These Out Loud
Sound out each block from top-left. You can already read all of these.
-
아기 (a-gi)
"baby" — ㅇ is silent, so 아 is just "ah".
-
나무 (na-mu)
"tree" — ㄴ+ㅏ, then ㅁ+ㅜ stacked.
-
고기 (go-gi)
"meat" — a wide vowel then a tall one.
-
한국 (han-guk)
"Korea" — both blocks have a bottom consonant.