Korean Characters

An Introduction to the Korean Characters and Their Pronunciation

The English alphabet is made up of characters—the 26 letters. Likewise, Korean has its own characters, and they’re called 한글 [Hangeul]. Due to the strong cultural influence of the Chinese in East Asia, Koreans used to use 한글 in combination with Chinese characters. Nowadays, however, Hangeul is sufficient for almost all communication, and Chinese characters are used much less frequently in Korea.

한글 is probably the easiest East Asian character system to learn. For example, Japanese writing is made up of three different sets of characters: hiragana, katagana, and Chinese characters (kanji in Japanese). And, of course, the Chinese language uses Chinese characters. There are thousands of these, most of them quite complicated, and in order to learn to read and write Chinese, you have to memorize them one by one. Now compare these to the 40 Korean characters, which you’ll soon see are formed in a very scientific and commonsense way. No sweat!

한글 is a unique writing system, created in 1444 by King Sejong the Great. His goal was to increase literacy in the country, so obviously he wanted to make 한글 as easy to learn as possible. You only have to look at modern Korea’s extremely low illiteracy rate (less than 2%) for proof of the system’s success.

Just like the English alphabet, 한글 contains consonants and vowels. The shape of each one was designed to copy the shape of vocal organs such as the mouth, throat, and tongue when it’s spoken, as you’ll see in the videos. Maybe this clue will help you make sense of the characters.

Something else before we begin. An important key to understanding 한글 is to think in terms of syllables. In English, letters are grouped together into syllables. Sometimes just one letter can be a syllable, and there are no rules about the location of vowels and consonants within a syllable. In Korean, on the other hand, syllables are never made up of just one character, and strict formulas govern the creation of syllables. They all contain a combination of Consonants and Vowels, and there are just two patterns for this: C + V and C + V + C.

And finally, keep in mind that the size and location of the characters can vary depending on which of the above patterns is being used. Sound confusing? Yeah. But it’ll make perfect sense once you see the examples below.

Okay, let’s check out the consonants first.

Do you know how many consonants English has? Right, 21. Well, in Korean there are 19 consonants. That’s not as many as English, but are you still worried 19 is too many to memorize? There’s no need! All you have to do is learn a few simple rules about their shape and pronunciation. We’ll start by splitting the 19 consonants into different groups. First, we have the 9 basic consonants.

Basic consonants

The English approximation for each character is shown in [brackets].

All of these consonants can appear at the beginning of a syllable, at the end of a syllable, or both. Consonants at the end of a syllable (C + V + C) are called 받점 [patchim]. When pronouncing ᄀ, ᄃ, ᄇ, ᄉ and ᄌ as third-position consonants, you should make them softer than when they’re in the first position. It’s almost like you’re just mouthing the consonant without making any noise. It sounds a bit confusing, I know, but don’t worry. I’ll explain the concept further in the next chapter.

Double consonants

Next, we have the five double consonants: , and . Do you recognize the shapes of these? As their name implies, they’re doubles of some of the basic consonants. Their pronunciation is harder and thicker than ᄀ, ᄃ, ᄇ, ᄉ, and ᄌ.

Double consonants are perhaps the hardest element of Korean pronunciation for English speakers to hear and mimic, and can lead to some very funny misunderstandings! For example, you might wind up asking a father for his “moon’s” hand in marriage instead of his “daughter’s” (딸:“daughter,” 달:“moon”), and you could then offer to give her a “tail,” not a “ring” (꼬리:“tail,” 고리:“ring”). Even native Koreans of particular regions sometimes make mistakes in the pronunciation of ᆻ. They sometimes cook “flesh” when what they really wanted was “rice” (살:“flesh,” 쌀:“rice”).

So don’t despair if you can’t make out these double consonants at first. They’ll take some time. Pay special attention to the videos.

Strong (aspirated) consonants

The shapes in this final group of five consonants should also look familiar to you now. Each one is formed by adding a line to or slightly modifying one of the basic consonants. For example, ᄀ becomes ᄏ, ᄃ becomes ᄐ, ᄇ becomes ᄑ, ᄋ becomes ᄒ, and ス becomes ᄎ. Pretty simple, right?

The consonants in this group are aspirated. What does this mean? Well, when you speak them, you should release a puff of air, which gives them a more forceful sound. Does that make sense? Here, try this: put your hand over your mouth. When you pronounce ᄀ [g], ᄃ [d], ᄇ [b], ᄋ [ng], and ス [j], you should only feel a very weak breath of air being expelled from your mouth. Now pronounce the aspirated consonants: ヲ [k], ᄐ [t], ᄑ [p], ᄒ [h], and ᄌ [ch]. You release a more powerful puff of air for each one, which you should feel on your hand. That’s aspiration—got it?

Okay, and just like we talked about with the basic consonants, both double and aspirated consonants can function as 받침, consonants at the end of a syllable. Remember to make these softer, like you’re just mouthing the consonant without making any noise.

In English, there are five vowels: a, e, i, o, and u. But Korean has 21! Oh no! Okay, hold on. You don’t have to freak out because, just like the consonants, we can divide up the vowels according to type so they’re easier to learn.

Basic vowels

To begin separating the vowels into groups, we have to think back to the two patterns for constructing Korean syllables: C + V and C + V + C. As you can see, no matter which pattern is used, the vowel always goes in the second position.

One defining feature of all vowels is how they are written in relation to the first-position Consonant. Some are written to the right of the Consonant, while others are placed below the Consonant. So first, let’s look at the 3 basic vowels that go to the right of the Consonant.

We can refer to these as vertical vowels because they look like they’re standing up straight. They’re placed directly to the right of a consonant, as in the word 아버지 [abeoji]. See how the vowels are standing up next to the consonants?

Now for the three basic horizontal vowels, which are written like they’re lying down.

These vowels are placed directly below a consonant, as in the word 스도쿠 [seudoku]. They look like they’re lying down, don’t they?

Double vowels (diphthongs)

Have you heard of diphthongs? They’re vowels that are a little more complex. They combine two different sounds to create a single new sound. All of the six basic Korean vowels you just learned have diphthongs associated with them.

Let’s look first at the diphthongs made from , and . These are vertical vowels, so their diphthongs are also vertical and are written to the right of a consonant.

Do you remember how we made the aspirated consonants? Right, by adding a line to or slightly modifying one of the basic consonants. Well, the same is true for the formation of these diphthong vowels. Add a line to and and you get and . Next, the third and fourth vowels in this list are made by combining two basic vowels. is created from , and comes from . Interestingly, though, most Koreans these days can’t distinguish between these two vowels because their sounds are so close to each other. The same is true of the final two diphthongs listed here, and . That means two less sounds for you to learn. Yes!

Okay. Now let’s look at two horizontal diphthongs that are made from the basic vowels and . Remember, these are written below the consonant.

It’s easy to see how becomes , and  becomes .

Great! Just seven more vowels to go! These last diphthongs are a little different, because they’re combinations of a horizontal vowel and a vertical vowel.

You’ve made it—nice work! I bet now you might be a little confused about some of the vowels that look similar to each other. But with a little practice and continued exposure, I know you’ll find it easy to tell them apart.

And what about their unfamiliar pronunciations? Well, here’s a tip for pronouncing those final seven diphthongs. Just think of them as adding together the pronunciations of the two vowels that make up the diphthong, as shown.

Let’s practice the most difficult one, ᅴ. Start by loudly making the sound of the first vowel, 一, and then add a quick |. Do this a couple times, and then say the whole thing faster, and faster, and faster… Soon, you’ll be sounding just like a Korean!

Also, you probably noticed that ᅫ, ᅬ, and ᅯ have the same pronunciation. Maybe you’re wondering what the point is of having three separate characters for the same sound. Is it just to make it hard on you? Well, yes, but that’s not the only reason! Having more characters means the Korean language can contain more words through homophones (words that sound the same but have different spellings and different meanings).

Hmm…are you still thinking, “How am I ever going to be able to remember all these characters and their strange, foreign pronunciations?” Hey, lighten up! You just started, so don’t expect to be an expert immediately. No one can do that, not even me. ^^

But if you’re still feeling discouraged, let me put things in perspective for you. Picture yourself riding a bus along the hectic, skyscraper-lined streets of Seoul. Outside your window, you’re watching all the billboards, street signs, and storefront banners fly by. How cool will it be when you realize you can decipher those alien characters and pronounce all the words you see? It’s a gratifying experience, believe me, and one you’ll be capable of before you know it.

Korean Style: Korean computer keyboards

Have you ever seen a Korean keyboard? If not, have you ever imagined how speakers of other languages use keyboards to write in their language on a computer? Well, studying a Korean keyboard is not only interesting in itself, but it also offers some insight into the relationships between the different Korean characters.

On the English keypad, each letter is assigned a single button. And you make capital letters by holding down the <shift> key. That’s only 26 different letter keys, right? Well, as you just learned, in Korean there are 19 consonants and 21 vowels. So how do they fit 40 characters onto those 26 keys? Let’s take a look.

Start at the <Q> key in the upper left-hand corner. There are two Korean characters on this button: ᄇ on the bottom and above it. Remember that is the double consonant of ᄇ? So, while in English you use the <shift> key to make capital letters, in Korean you can type double consonants with <shift>. Does that make sense? Moving to the right in the same row, you can see and , ᄃ and , ᄀ and ᄁ, and  ᄉ and  ᆻ. All of the consonants that make double consonants are in the upper left section of the keyboard.

Great. And what about aspirated consonants? Well, check out the bottom row of keys. Starting from the left, you have ᄏ, ᄐ, ᄎ, and ᄑ. And the vowels? Most of the basic ones are in the second row to the right, and their diphthongs (double vowels) occupy the keys above them.

But where are ᅪ, ᅫ, ᅬ, ᅯ, Π, ᅱ, and ᅴ? Remember how I told you that each of these seven diphthongs is a combination of two other vowels? With that in mind, can you guess how to type them? Correct! If you want to type Κ, you hit first, and then Α, which will automatically create the character ᅬ on the screen. ᅫ is + , ᅬ is + |, and so on.

As you can see, the Korean characters aren’t randomly positioned on the keyboard like the English letters are. Because of this, Koreans can type very quickly, and that’s one of the many reasons why computers and the Internet are so prevalent in Korean society.