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.
