Learning How to Read in Korean - (Part 1 - Consonants)

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Basics
You made it!
Welcome to your first step of Korean-learning journey and we hope that we can guide you effectively through it all the way.
 
There are a total of 14 basic consonants and 10 vowels. After you’ve learned these, you will learn to double the consonants and combine the vowels. Once you’ve learned it all, it would be a total of 40 letters.
 
Consonants:
  • Basic (14): ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅇ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, ㅎ
  • Double (5): ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ
 
Vowels:
  • Basic (10): ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅗ, ㅛ, ㅜ, ㅠ, ㅡ, ㅣ
  • Compound (11): ㅐ, ㅒ, ㅔ, ㅖ, ㅘ, ㅙ, ㅚ, ㅝ, ㅞ, ㅟ, ㅢ
 
They probably only look like neatly-cut symbols for now, but hang tight! It’ll all make sense very soon.
 
Hangul, Korean alphabets basically, have different layers that can be stacked. Think of it like lego blocks. Instead of going side ways to build a word with letters, you go from top to bottom.
 
Your first letter will be a consonant letter, always, and in Korean we call then 자음 (Ja-eum). The vowels are called ‘모음’ (Mo-eum)
 
Then you add the vowel or Mo-eum, then a supporting consonant under it.
You can stack up to four. The final consonants are called ‘받침’ (Batchim) and they can be paired.
 
notion image
The first letter you will stack is called the ‘초성’ (Cho sung). Then you will go to right and place a vowel, which we also call ‘중성’ (Joong sung). Then under it, you can place a total of two consonants, which we call ‘받침’ (Batchim). We also call then ‘Jong sung’.
 
When you have two batchims, it’ll look like this: 닭.
 
Let’s learn how all of the consonants, or 초성, sound first:
 
  1. ㄱ:
      2. Name: 기역 (gi-yuk). This is what the letter is called.
      Sound: “g” sound
       
  1. ㄴ:
      2. Name: 니은 (ni-eun)
      Sound: “n” sound
       
  1. ㄷ:
      2. Name: 디귿 (di-geut)
      Sound: “d” sound
       
  1. ㄹ:
      2. Name: 리을 (ri-eul)
      Sound: “r” sound
 
  1. ㅁ
      2. Name: 미음 (mi-eum)
      Sound: “m” sound
       
  1. ㅂ
      2. Name: 비읍 (bi-eup)
      Sound: “b” sound
       
  1. ㅅ
      2. Name: 시옷 (si-ot)
      Sound: “s” of “sh” depending on the vowel
       
  1. ㅇ
      2. Name: 이응 (ee-eung)
      Sound: “-ng” sound. This ones a bit special! It’s basically no sound.
       
  1. ㅈ
      2. Name: 지읒 (ji-eut)
      Sound: “j” sound
       
  1. ㅊ
      2. Name: 치읓 (chi-eut)
      Sound: “ch” sound
 
  1. ㅋ
      2. Name: 키읔 (ki-euk)
      Sound: “k” sound
       
  1. ㅌ
      2. Name: 티읕 (ti-eut)
      Sound: “t” sound
       
  1. ㅍ
      2. Name: 피읖 (pi-eup)
      Sound: “p” sound
       
  1. ㅎ
      2. Name: 히읗 (hee-eut)
      Sound: “h” sound
 
 
To help you memorize the letters, you can use the following digital worksheet, if you are an iPad or tablet user. Otherwise you can also print it and go analog! 🙂
 
The worksheet guide you on how to write the letters in the correct order, as this is a thing. The worksheet also contains the double consonants, which is explained below.
 
The word ‘쌍’ (Ssang) means double.
 
There are five letters that can be doubled.
 
  1. ㄱ → ㄲ
      2. Name: 쌍 기역 (ssang gi-yuk)
      Sound: Kk
       
  1. ㄷ → ㄸ
      2. Name: 쌍 디귿 (ssang di-geut)
      Sound: Tt
 
  1. ㅂ → ㅃ
      2. Name: 쌍 비읍 (ssang bi-eup)
      Sound: Pp
 
  1. ㅅ → ㅆ
      2. Name: 쌍 시옷 (ssang si-ot)
      Sound: Ss
       
  1. ㅈ → ㅉ
      2. Name: 쌍 지읒 (ssang ji-eut)
      Sound: Jj