The Korean alphabet (Hangul): all 40 letters and the syllable chart, with audio
The Korean alphabet, Hangul, has 24 basic letters โ 14 consonants and 10 vowels โ plus 16 double consonants and combined vowels, 40 in all. Letters are stacked into syllable blocks: ํ is ใ + ใ + ใด. Each letter keeps a consistent sound, so most learners can sound out Hangul within days. Tap any letter or syllable to hear it, then say a word and get a score.
- 14 basic consonants + 10 basic vowels = 24 letters; 40 with doubles and combinations
- Letters stack into syllable blocks: consonant + vowel (+ final consonant)
- ใ is silent at the start of a syllable and "ng" at the end
- Most consonants come in three versions: plain ใฑ, aspirated ใ , tense ใฒ
Say these 5 words โ get a score for each
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๋ฌ
Plain ใท: a light t with only a little air, then a held l at the end.
moon
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How Hangul works
Hangul was created under King Sejong and published in 1446 so that anyone could learn to read. It is an alphabet โ each letter is one sound โ but the letters are written in square syllable blocks rather than in a line, so ํ๊ธ ("Hangul") is two blocks: ใ + ใ + ใด and ใฑ + ใ ก + ใน.
The basic consonant shapes picture the mouth making them: ใฑ is the back of the tongue raised, ใด the tongue tip touching the ridge behind the teeth, ใ the closed mouth, ใ a tooth and ใ the throat. Adding a stroke adds air: ใฑ โ ใ , ใท โ ใ . Vowels are built from a dot or short stroke, a horizontal line and a vertical line.
Every block starts with a consonant
A syllable that begins with a vowel is written with a silent ใ in front: ์, ์ด, ์ค.
Tall vowels go to the right
ใ ใ ใ ใ ใ ฃ (and ใ ใ ) sit to the right of the consonant.
Wide vowels go underneath
ใ ใ ใ ใ ใ ก sit under the consonant.
A final consonant goes at the bottom
The batchim closes the block from below: ๊ฐ + ใ = ๊ฐ (river), ํ + ใด = ํ.
The 14 basic consonants
Tap a letter to hear its name. Each name shows the letter twice: at the start (๊ธฐ) and at the end (์ญ) of a syllable. These are the South Korean names; North Korea uses different names for some letters (๊ธฐ์ฝ, ๋์, ์์).
| Letter | Name โ tap to hear | Sound | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ใฑ | ๊ธฐ์ญ[ki.jสkฬ] | g / k โ a light k at the start of a word, g between vowels | ๊ฐ๋ฐฉbag |
| ใด | ๋์[ni.ษฏn] | n | ๋๋ฌดtree |
| ใท | ๋๊ทฟ[ti.ษกษฏtฬ] | d / t โ a light t at the start, d between vowels | ๋ค๋ฆฌleg; bridge |
| ใน | ๋ฆฌ์[ษพi.ษฏl] | r / l โ a tap between vowels, l at the end of a syllable | ๋ผ๋ฉดramen |
| ใ | ๋ฏธ์[mi.ษฏm] | m | ๋ง์heart; mind |
| ใ | ๋น์[pi.ษฏpฬ] | b / p โ a light p at the start, b between vowels | ๋ฐ๋คsea |
| ใ | ์์ท[ษi.otฬ] | s โ "sh" before ใ ฃ and y-vowels | ์ฌ๋person |
| ใ | ์ด์[i.ษฏล] | silent at the start of a syllable; ng at the end | ์์ดchild |
| ใ | ์ง์[tษi.ษฏtฬ] | j โ between "ch" and "j", softer than both | ์ง๋map |
| ใ | ์น์[tษสฐi.ษฏtฬ] | ch โ with a strong puff of air | ์ฐจcar; tea |
| ใ | ํค์[kสฐi.ษฏkฬ] | k โ with a strong puff of air | ์ฝnose |
| ใ | ํฐ์[tสฐi.ษฏtฬ] | t โ with a strong puff of air | ํ ๋ผrabbit |
| ใ | ํผ์[pสฐi.ษฏpฬ] | p โ with a strong puff of air | ํฌ๋grapes |
| ใ | ํ์[hi.ษฏtฬ] | h | ํ๋one |
The 5 double (tense) consonants
Doubling a letter makes it tense: no puff of air, a tight throat, and a slightly higher pitch on the vowel. Their names start with ์ ("pair").
| Letter | Name โ tap to hear | Sound | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ใฒ | ์๊ธฐ์ญ[sอaล.ษกi.jสkฬ] | kk โ a tense k: no puff, tight throat | ๊ผฌ๋ฆฌtail |
| ใธ | ์๋๊ทฟ[sอaล.di.ษกษฏtฬ] | tt โ a tense t | ๋ธdaughter |
| ใ | ์๋น์[sอaล.bi.ษฏpฬ] | pp โ a tense p | ๋นตbread |
| ใ | ์์์ท[sอaล.ษi.otฬ] | ss โ a sharp, tense s | ์uncooked rice |
| ใ | ์์ง์[sอaล.dสi.ษฏtฬ] | jj โ a tense "tch" | ์ง๋คto be salty |
Reading about a sound is not the same as making it. The TonePerfect app gives you a short daily Korean session built from your own weakest sounds, and scores every take.
The 10 basic vowels
A vowel's name is the vowel itself, written with a silent ใ . An extra short stroke adds a "y" in front: ใ โ ใ , ใ โ ใ .
| Letter | Name โ tap to hear | Sound | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ใ | ์[a] | a โ the a of "father" | ์์ดchild |
| ใ | ์ผ[ja] | ya | ์ผ๊ตฌbaseball |
| ใ | ์ด[ส] | eo โ between "uh" and "aw", lips relaxed | ์ด๋จธ๋mother |
| ใ | ์ฌ[jส] | yeo | ์ฌ์woman |
| ใ | ์ค[o] | o โ rounded, no w-glide | ์ค์ดcucumber |
| ใ | ์[jo] | yo | ์๋ฆฌcooking |
| ใ | ์ฐ[u] | u โ the "oo" of "food" | ์ฐ์ milk |
| ใ | ์ [ju] | yu | ์ ๋ฆฌglass |
| ใ ก | ์ผ[ษฏ] | eu โ "oo" with flat, spread lips | ๊ทธ๋ฆผpicture |
| ใ ฃ | ์ด[i] | i โ the "ee" of "see" | ์ด๋ฆname |
The 11 combined vowels
Combining vowels adds a "w" or changes the quality. In modern Seoul speech several of them have merged: ใ and ใ sound alike, and ใ , ใ and ใ are all "weh".
| Letter | Name โ tap to hear | Sound | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ใ | ์ [ษ ~ e] | ae โ the e of "bed"; most speakers say it like ใ | ๊ฐdog |
| ใ | ์[jษ ~ je] | yae | ์๊ธฐtalk; story |
| ใ | ์[e] | e โ the e of "bed" | ๋คyes |
| ใ | ์[je] | ye โ just "e" after most consonants | ์์๋คto be pretty |
| ใ | ์[wa] | wa | ์ฌ๊ณผapple |
| ใ | ์[wษ ~ we] | wae โ "weh" | ์why |
| ใ | ์ธ[we] | oe โ today said "weh", like ใ | ํ์ฌcompany |
| ใ | ์[wส] | wo โ a quick w into ใ | ๋ญwhat |
| ใ | ์จ[we] | we โ "weh" | ์ค์จํฐsweater |
| ใ | ์[wi] | wi โ the "wee" of "week" | ๊ทear |
| ใ ข | ์[ษฐi] | ui โ flat ใ ก gliding into "ee" | ์์ฌdoctor |
Hangul syllable chart with audio
Every basic consonant with every basic vowel. Read across a row to hear one consonant with all ten vowels, or down a column for one vowel with every consonant โ it is the fastest way to hear the plain/aspirated contrast (๊ฐ vs ์นด, ๋ค vs ํ) and ใ vs ใ .
| C \ V | ใ | ใ | ใ | ใ | ใ | ใ | ใ | ใ | ใ ก | ใ ฃ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ใฑ | ๊ฐ | ๊ฐธ | ๊ฑฐ | ๊ฒจ | ๊ณ | ๊ต | ๊ตฌ | ๊ท | ๊ทธ | ๊ธฐ |
| ใด | ๋ | ๋ | ๋ | ๋ | ๋ ธ | ๋จ | ๋ | ๋ด | ๋ | ๋ |
| ใท | ๋ค | ๋ | ๋ | ๋ | ๋ | ๋ด | ๋ | ๋ | ๋ | ๋ |
| ใน | ๋ผ | ๋ด | ๋ฌ | ๋ ค | ๋ก | ๋ฃ | ๋ฃจ | ๋ฅ | ๋ฅด | ๋ฆฌ |
| ใ | ๋ง | ๋จ | ๋จธ | ๋ฉฐ | ๋ชจ | ๋ฌ | ๋ฌด | ๋ฎค | ๋ฏ | ๋ฏธ |
| ใ | ๋ฐ | ๋ฑ | ๋ฒ | ๋ฒผ | ๋ณด | ๋ตค | ๋ถ | ๋ทฐ | ๋ธ | ๋น |
| ใ | ์ฌ | ์ค | ์ | ์ | ์ | ์ผ | ์ | ์ | ์ค | ์ |
| ใ | ์ | ์ผ | ์ด | ์ฌ | ์ค | ์ | ์ฐ | ์ | ์ผ | ์ด |
| ใ | ์ | ์ | ์ | ์ ธ | ์กฐ | ์ฃ | ์ฃผ | ์ฅฌ | ์ฆ | ์ง |
| ใ | ์ฐจ | ์ฑ | ์ฒ | ์ณ | ์ด | ์ตธ | ์ถ | ์ธ | ์ธ | ์น |
| ใ | ์นด | ์บฌ | ์ปค | ์ผ | ์ฝ | ์ฟ | ์ฟ | ํ | ํฌ | ํค |
| ใ | ํ | ํธ | ํฐ | ํ จ | ํ | ํ | ํฌ | ํ | ํธ | ํฐ |
| ใ | ํ | ํ | ํผ | ํด | ํฌ | ํ | ํธ | ํจ | ํ | ํผ |
| ใ | ํ | ํ | ํ | ํ | ํธ | ํจ | ํ | ํด | ํ | ํ |
Note that ์, ์ค, ์ , ์ผ and ์ start with "sh", not "s": ใ changes before ใ ฃ and the y-vowels.
Korean alphabet FAQ
How many letters are in the Korean alphabet?+
Hangul has 24 basic letters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Counting the 5 double consonants and 11 combined vowels, there are 40 letters in all.
Who created Hangul, and when?+
It was created under King Sejong the Great and published in 1446, in a document called Hunminjeongeum ("the correct sounds for teaching the people"). Korea celebrates Hangul Day every October 9.
Is Hangul an alphabet or a syllabary?+
An alphabet: each letter stands for one consonant or vowel. What makes it look like a syllabary is that letters are grouped into square syllable blocks, such as ํ (ใ + ใ + ใด).
How long does it take to learn Hangul?+
Reading it is quick: many learners can sound out Hangul within a few days of practice. Pronouncing it well takes longer โ the plain/aspirated/tense consonants, ใ and ใ ก, and the sound changes between syllables need practice with feedback.
Why is ใ silent?+
At the start of a syllable ใ is a placeholder, because every block must begin with a consonant: ์ is just "a". At the end of a syllable it is the "ng" of "song": ๋ฐฉ (room).
Are ใ and ใ pronounced differently?+
Not for most speakers today. Both sound like the e of "bed", so ๊ฐ (dog) and ๊ฒ (crab) sound the same; spelling and context tell them apart.
Can I check my Korean pronunciation online for free?+
Yes โ the recorder on this page. Say the word, and each word and each of its sounds gets a score out of 100, weakest first. It runs in your browser and needs no account; the TonePerfect app has the full course.
Keep going
- Korean pronunciation guide โEvery sound with IPA, batchim, the sound-change rules and the 8 mistakes English speakers make.
- Batchim: Korean final consonants โ
- ใ vs ใ in Korean โ
- Korean sound chart โAll 42 sounds with audio.
- Free Korean pronunciation test โ5 words, a score for each.
- Korean pronunciation checker โ
Practice Korean pronunciation every day
The app turns this guide into practice: it finds the sounds you miss, drills them in real words and sentences, and scores every take. Free to start on iPhone, Android and the web.
Last reviewed 2026-10-31. Take the free Korean pronunciation test โ