Explore the beautiful writing system created by King Sejong in 1443
Hangul is the Korean alphabet, consisting of consonants and vowels that combine to form syllable blocks. Unlike many other writing systems, Hangul was scientifically designed and has a known creator, King Sejong the Great. The shapes of the consonants mimic the position of the mouth when pronouncing them.
Watch the animations below to learn how to write each character and practice along!
Korean consonants are the building blocks of syllables. Each consonant has a distinct sound and stroke order.
Korean consonants are based on the shape your mouth makes when you pronounce them. For example, ㄱ resembles the back of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth when saying "g/k" sounds.
Korean vowels come in two types: basic vowels and complex vowels. Here are the basic vowels that form the foundation of the writing system.
Korean vowels can be categorized into vertical vowels (ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅣ) and horizontal vowels (ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ). The double lines in vowels like ㅑ, ㅕ indicate that they are "y" sounds added to the basic vowel.
In Korean, consonants and vowels combine to form syllable blocks. Every syllable must start with a consonant (if there is no consonant sound, ㅇ is used as a placeholder).
Korean syllables follow these patterns:
한글 (Hangul) consists of:
Try writing your name in Korean by breaking it down into syllables and matching the sounds with Korean letters. Remember that Korean is phonetic, so focus on the sounds rather than the spelling in your native language.
Now that you've learned the basic consonants and vowels, let's try to form some simple Korean words!
Remember that each Korean syllable is written as a block. For example, in the word 안녕 (annyeong), there are two syllable blocks: