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The fourteen basic consonants

Fourteen consonants come from five basic shapes, and most of the rest are those shapes with a stroke or two added.

With ten vowels in hand you can now add consonants and read real words. A consonant goes in the first slot of the block, where the silent round letter sat in the last unit. Replace the round letter with the letter for n and you get na. Replace it with the letter for m and you get ma. Korean children learn the consonants by running them through the vowel a in dictionary order: ga, na, da, ra, ma, ba, sa, a, ja, cha, ka, ta, pa, ha. That chant, known by its first four syllables, works for adult learners too, and it is the order you will find in every Korean dictionary.

Letter	Name	Sound at the start	Romanized
ㄱ	giyeok	between g and k	g (k at the end)
ㄴ	nieun	n	n
ㄷ	digeut	between d and t	d (t at the end)
ㄹ	rieul	a light tap, like tt in American better	r (l at the end)
ㅁ	mieum	m	m
ㅂ	bieup	between b and p	b (p at the end)
ㅅ	siot	s	s
ㅇ	ieung	silent at the start	ng at the end
ㅈ	jieut	a light j	j
ㅊ	chieut	ch with a puff of air	ch
ㅋ	kieuk	k with a puff of air	k
ㅌ	tieut	t with a puff of air	t
ㅍ	pieup	p with a puff of air	p
ㅎ	hieut	h	h

Families of shapes

The 1446 design makes the consonants easy to learn in families. Start from the five basic shapes of unit 1. Add a stroke to the g letter and you get k, said with more breath. From the n letter you get d by adding a line on top, and t by adding one more. From the m letter you get b and then p. From the s letter you get j and then ch. From the round letter you get h. One letter breaks the pattern: the letter for r and l (rieul) has its own shape. If you learn the families, you only need to remember five shapes and one rule: more strokes, more breath.

Consonant families. Each row starts from a basic shape, and extra strokes mark a stronger sound. The letter for r and l stands apart.

Sounds that change with position

Four plain consonants, the ones romanized g, d, b and j, sound different at the start of a word and between vowels. At the start they carry a light breath and English listeners often hear k, t, p or ch. Between vowels they become voiced and sound much closer to English g, d, b and j. That is why the word for meat, gogi, can sound like ko-gi to a beginner: the same letter, two sounds. The official romanization keeps one spelling, g, and lets the position do the work. The letter for r and l behaves the same way: between vowels it is a quick tap like the tt in American better, and at the end of a syllable it is a clear l.

Two more habits are worth knowing early. The letter for s is said with a hiss before most vowels, but before i it slides toward sh, so the syllable si sounds close to English she. The romanization still writes si. And the letter for j is lighter than the English j in jam, with the tongue a little further forward. None of this needs drilling on day one. It explains why recordings do not always match what the romanization suggests.

BackgroundTeachers of Hangul like to quote a line from the 1446 book. In his postscript the scholar Jeong In-ji wrote that a wise person could learn the letters before the morning was over, and even a slow learner within ten days. It sounds like a boast, but people who try it often find it close to the truth for reading, if not for understanding. The consonants in this unit are the reason. Fourteen letters, five shapes and one rule about strokes are a small load, and once they are learned every Korean sign can at least be sounded out.

Practice: chant the syllable chart in order with the vowel a, then repeat it with o (go, no, do, ro, mo) and with i. Changing the vowel keeps the chant from turning into a song you recite without looking.

Under each line you will see the spelling in Latin letters. It follows the Revised Romanization of Korean, the system on South Korean road signs, issued by the Ministry of Culture in 2000 and published by the National Institute of Korean Language. Where a word is said differently from how it is spelled, the romanization follows the sound, as the official rules do. Listen to the recording (your device’s Korean voice) and copy the sound, not the letters.

가 나 다 라 마 바 사 · the first half of the syllable chart
아 자 차 카 타 파 하 · the second half of the chart
나무 · tree
바다 · sea
고기 · meat
어머니 · mother
아버지 · father
커피 · coffee

가	ga
나	na
다	da
라	ra
마	ma
바	ba
사	sa
자	ja
차	cha
카	ka
타	ta
파	pa
하	ha
지도	jido · map

For dictation, switch on a Korean keyboard (called Korean, or 2-Set Korean, on most phones and computers). On the standard layout the consonants sit on the left half and the vowels on the right, and the keyboard joins the letters into blocks for you as you type.

가 나 다 라 마 바 사 아 자 차 카 타 파 하

Which consonant is romanized m?
- ㄴ
- ㅁ
- ㅂ
Which letter is said with a puff of air, romanized k?
- ㄱ
- ㅋ
- ㅎ
Which family does ㅌ belong to?
- ㄴ
- ㅅ
- ㅁ
Which basic shape do ㅈ and ㅊ grow from?
- ㅅ
- ㅇ
- ㄱ
Which letter does not follow the stroke-adding pattern?
- ㄹ
- ㅍ
- ㅎ
Which word is read namu (tree)?
- 나무
- 너무
- 노무
How is gogi (meat) usually heard by English speakers?
- k at the start, g in the middle
- g at both places
- k at both places
Which romanization is correct for the word for mother?
- eomeoni
- omoni
- eumeoni
Which romanization is correct for the word for train?
- gicha
- kicha
- gija
Type the syllable made of the h letter and a.
Put these syllables in dictionary order.

Key points

14 basic consonants in five families; more strokes, more breath.
g, d, b, j sound lighter at the start and voiced between vowels.
The r/l letter taps between vowels and is l at the end.