ShilwinShing

Korean writer

Easykorean : how to read and write

In this lesson we will focus on the first five consonants and five vowels only to get used to
creating the characters. Writing with the correct stroke order will make your writing neater.

A Hangul Points

 A-1. Using consonants and vowels to create simple hangul
When creating a hangul character you will always start with a consonant, and then follow it
with a vowel. Let’s look at some simple consonant + vowel combinations:



 A-2. Writing order and orientation
There are standing (vertical) and laying (horizontal) vowels. Standing vowels always
“stand” to the right of the consonant. Laying vowels always “lay” below the consonant.
C = consonant V = vowel


left / right combinations
가 = ga
개 = ge
나 = na
내 = ne
다 = da
대 = de
라 = ra
래 = re
마 = ma
매 = me


top / bottom combinations
고 = go
구 = gu
노 = no
누 = nu
도 = do
두 = du
로 =ro
루 = ru
모 = mo
무 = mu

 A-3. The different sounds of ㄱ, ㄹ
ㄱ can be pronounced like a G or a K. Typically at the beginning of a sentence or word you
will hear ㄱ like a K, and if it is in the middle of a word it’s closer to a G.
ㄹ can be pronounced like an R or an L. Typically at the beginning of a sentence you will
hear ㄹ like a R and in the middle more like L.

As you learn Korean you will find that, depending on the word, the sound of ㄱ and ㄹ will
shift. In many cases you just have to learn how that particular word is pronounced.

(Easykorean) how to read hangul consonant and vowel

Hangul Consonants and Vowels

Hangul characters are “built” using consonant and vowel parts. Using these individual parts
over 12,000 characters can be constructed.
Don’t worry about memorizing the chart on this page, it is mainly to be used as a reference.
The next few lessons will gradually teach you how to read and write hangul. You will be
pleasantly surprised as to how easily you learn it.

Consonant :
ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ
G N D R/L M B S null/NG J CH K T P H

Consonants: double consonant
ㅃ ㅉ ㄸ ㄲ ㅆ
PP JJ DD KK SS

Vowels: single vowel
ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ ㅐ ㅔ
a ya eo yeo o yo u yu eu i ae e

Vowels: double
ㅒ ㅖ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅢ
yae ye wa wae woe wo we wi ui

Easykorean : how to read hangul (intro)

INTRODUCTION

A Why Learn Hangul?

Hangul is the main writing system of Korea. It’s famous for being easy to learn and in many
linguistic circles is considered genius. Prior to its invention in the 15th century, Korean used
the same Chinese characters as China and Japan. Japanese and Chinese children spend a
significant part of the school years devoted to learning the often complicated Chinese
characters, but hangul can be learned in a few days for an average adult.

If you aren’t convinced yet as to how cool hangul is, here are the top five reasons you should
learn hangul:

1. It’s easy. WAY easier than you imagine!
Some people say you can learn it in just two hours.

2. It’s cool. Seriously… none of your friends can write it!
Unless your friends are all studying Korean or ARE Korean you will be the coolest
person around when you say, and show them, that you can read and write Korean!

3. Your accent improves.
You have spent much of your life reading Roman letters (ABC) in a certain way. If you
learn Korean with those letters you will often still read them the same way and not have
a great Korean accent. If you learn hangul, you won’t have to fight your English
speaking habits!

4. Korean Romanization can be a bit confusing. It’s just easier to learn hangul.

With combinations like “SEO” and “SAE” and “SEU” it’s pretty easy to screw up the 

Romanization of Korean. Hangul fixes this problem. Besides… imagine if a Korean 

person decided to learn English only using hangul characters!

5. There is no choice!

Because hangul is so easy, It’s rare that a book teaching Korean teaches using Roman

letters. Even this book teaches 100% in hangul after the hangul lesson section.