Korean Alphabet (Hangul) Chart: Vowels, Consonants & Batchim with Audio

Basic vowels (10)

Vowels are built from a vertical stroke (ㅣ), a horizontal stroke (ㅡ) and short ticks. Adding a second tick puts a "y" sound in front: ㅏ a → ㅑ ya.

The silent ㅇ before vowels

A Korean vowel never stands alone: when a syllable starts with a vowel, a silent ㅇ is written in front. You write 이, not ㅣ, and 오, not ㅗ – the sound stays the same.

Compound vowels (11)

Two basic vowels combine into one: ㅗ + ㅏ = ㅘ wa, ㅜ + ㅓ = ㅝ wo. In everyday speech ㅐ and ㅔ sound almost the same.

How compound vowels are formed

Learn these 3 patterns and you can read every compound vowel without memorising each one.

Basic consonants (14)

Consonant shapes mirror the tongue, lips and throat when you say them. Many are pronounced differently at the start and end of a syllable (shown as "initial / final"). ㅇ is silent at the start and sounds "ng" at the end.

Double consonants (5)

Doubling a basic consonant makes a tense sound: short and strong with no puff of air. Compare: 가 ga – 까 kka – 카 ka.

Vertical and horizontal vowels

6 syllable block patterns

Every Korean character is a square block: an initial consonant, a vowel and an optional batchim (one or two final consonants). Every syllable fits one of these 6 patterns.

Basic syllable chart

The 14 basic consonants combined with the 10 basic vowels. With vertical vowels (ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅣ…) the consonant goes on the left; with horizontal vowels (ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ…) it goes on top.

Batchim – final consonants (7 sounds)

The consonant at the bottom of a syllable block is called batchim. Although many letters can appear there, they are all pronounced as one of these 7 sounds.

Double batchim

At the end of a word or before a consonant, a double batchim is read as just one consonant. If a vowel (silent ㅇ) follows, the second consonant moves to the next syllable and both are pronounced.

Pronunciation rules to know

Practise reading Korean sentences

Use the alphabet and the linking rules to read your first everyday sentences. Tap a sentence to hear it.

Syllable builder

Pick an initial consonant, a vowel and an optional batchim to see how the block is built and hear it.