Tag: typography

letslearnhangul:

The Korean Alphabet: Consonants
(¼)

한글 (han geul) is the name for the Korean alphabet, while the Korean language itself is known as 한국어 (han guk eo).

It is important to note that in Korean, an individual character represents a single sound unlike other languages like Chinese where a complex character may represent a symbol. So, just like in English, you can put different “letters” together and build syllables, words, and sentences!

The Korean language has 14 basic consonants, each that correspond to a single sound.

Let’s take a look~

1. ㄱ (g/k sound) g as in gold
2. ㄴ (n sound) n as in north
3. ㄷ (d sound) d as in door
4. ㄹ (r/l sound)*
5. ㅁ (m sound) m as in mother
6.ㅂ (b sound) b as in balloon
7. ㅅ (s sound) s as in sail
8. ㅇ (no sound/ ng)*
9. ㅈ (j sound) as in joy
10. ㅊ (ch sound) and in chat
11. ㅋ (k sound) as in kayak
12. ㅌ (t sound) as in tomato
13. ㅍ (p sound) as in pet
14. ㅎ (h sound) as in house

*it is important to note that the pronunciation of “ㄹ” and “ㅇ” depends on the placement of the character in a given word. The pronunciation of “ㄹ” is in between the “r” and “l” sounds and emphasis varies depending on how the word is spoken. The rule for “ㅇ” on the other hand is pretty simple. When placed at the beginning of the word, “ㅇ” makes no sound, and when placed at the end of a word makes an “-ng” sound.

Happy studying!~