Korean Alphabet Basics
The Korean alphabet (Hangul) has 14 basic consonants and 10 basic vowels. Unlike English, Korean letters are combined into blocks to form syllables.
Korean consonants often have similar sounds to English. For example, ㄱ sounds like "g", ㄴ is "n", and ㄷ makes a "d" sound. Some consonants might be tricky at first, like ㄹ which is somewhere between "r" and "l".
Vowels in Korean have simple, consistent sounds. ㅏ is pronounced "ah" (like in "father"), ㅓ sounds like "uh", and ㅣ makes an "ee" sound (like in "meet"). When you see ㅑ or ㅕ, those are just "y" plus a vowel (ya, yeo).
Try This! Practice writing each character several times while saying its sound out loud. This helps your brain connect the symbol with its pronunciation.