Every Hangul consonant and vowel with audio, plus how Korean syllable blocks are built. Free, no signup, works on your phone.
Hangul is not a set of pictures to memorise. It is an alphabet, and it was designed to be learned quickly. Most people can read Korean letters aloud within a few hours — understanding the words takes longer, but reading comes first.
Korean letters are not written in a straight line like English. They are stacked into square blocks, and each block is one syllable. A block always starts with a consonant and contains at least one vowel.
Whether a syllable ends in a batchim decides a lot of Korean grammar later — which particle you attach, which verb ending you use. It is worth noticing from day one. If a vowel is tall and thin (ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅣ) the consonant goes to its left. If a vowel is flat and wide (ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ) the consonant goes on top.
Tap any letter to hear it. ㅇ is silent at the start of a syllable and sounds like ng at the end.
These are the same shapes doubled. They are pronounced tighter and sharper, with no puff of air.
A vowel with an extra short stroke adds a y sound: ㅏ becomes ㅑ, ㅓ becomes ㅕ.
These combine two vowel shapes. In modern speech ㅐ and ㅔ sound nearly identical, and so do ㅒ and ㅖ.
Once you can read blocks, the next thing that actually unlocks sentences is particles — the small markers that tell you who is doing what. Start here:
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