Korean Course Stage 1: Read Hangul in a Week (Free PDFs)

Learn to read, write, pronounce and type Hangul, the Korean alphabet. After this stage you can sound out any Korean word, read signs and menus, and use Korean dictionaries and apps.

Hangul is one of the few writing systems made on purpose, and you can see the design in every letter. King Sejong the Great created it with a group of scholars. It was completed at the end of 1443 (early 1444 by today’s calendar) and promulgated in 1446 in a book called Hunminjeongeum, ‘the correct sounds for teaching the people’.

A companion book, the Hunminjeongeum Haerye (‘explanations and examples’), explains how the letters were designed. The Kansong copy of this book is a Korean National Treasure and was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 1997. South Korea celebrates Hangul Day on 9 October, a public holiday.

The design is why you can learn Hangul fast: the basic consonants are pictures of the mouth making the sound, stronger sounds add a stroke, and the vowels are built from three simple marks. There were 28 letters at first; 24 are used today. Learn the logic once and the rest falls into place.

What you will be able to do

• You can read any Hangul word aloud, letter by letter and syllable by syllable.
• You can write all 40 letters (19 consonants and 21 vowels) and build them into syllable blocks.
• You can hear and say the difference between plain, aspirated and tense consonants (ㄱ/ㅋ/ㄲ).
• You know the 7 final sounds (batchim) and the common sound changes, so 감사합니다 comes out as [감사함니다].
• You can read common signs and loanwords such as 출구, 화장실, 지하철 and 커피.
• You can type Korean on a computer and on your phone.
• You can look up a word in a Korean dictionary by its spelling.

Download the printable PDFs

Free study sheets for this stage. Pick your language — the Korean is the same in every version; only the explanations are translated. Print them or use them on a tablet.

The whole Hangul alphabet on one page

Hangul has 24 basic letters — 14 consonants and 10 vowels, plus 5 double consonants and 11 combined vowels built from them. Tap ▶ to hear each one (your browser’s Korean voice reads it with a vowel, because Korean letters are always read in syllables). Keep this chart open while you do the steps below.

Consonants (14)

Double consonants (5) — tenser sounds

Vowels (10)

Combined vowels (11)

How letters stack into syllables

Every syllable is a block: a consonant first, then a vowel beside or below it, and sometimes a final consonant underneath (the “batchim”).

• 가 = ㄱ (g) + ㅏ (a) → ga
• 한 = ㅎ (h) + ㅏ (a) + ㄴ (n) → han
• 국 = ㄱ (g) + ㅜ (u) + ㄱ (k) → guk
• 한국 → Hanguk (Korea)

18 words you will see on signs

Also on this site: where to take Korean classes in your country.

Step 1. How Hangul works: the story and the logic

The five basic consonants are drawn from the speech organs. ㄱ is the back of the tongue blocking the throat, ㄴ is the tongue tip touching the ridge behind the upper teeth, ㅁ is the mouth, ㅅ is a tooth, and ㅇ is the round throat. Most other consonants add a stroke for a stronger or breathier sound: ㄱ→ㅋ, ㄴ→ㄷ→ㅌ, ㅁ→ㅂ→ㅍ, ㅅ→ㅈ→ㅊ, ㅇ→ㅎ.

The vowels come from three elements: heaven (a round dot, written today as a short stroke), earth (ㅡ, flat) and human (ㅣ, standing). A short stroke added to ㅣ gives ㅏ; added to ㅡ it gives ㅗ. Two short strokes add a ‘y’ sound: ㅏ→ㅑ, ㅗ→ㅛ.

Letters are not written in a line like English. They are grouped into square blocks, one block per syllable: ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ = 한, ㄱ + ㅜ + ㄱ = 국, so 한국 (Korea) is two blocks. Every block starts with a consonant and has a vowel.

Step 2. The 10 basic vowels (and the silent ㅇ)

Korean has 10 basic vowels. Five stand upright (ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅣ) and five lie flat (ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ). The ones with two short strokes add a ‘y’ sound at the start.

A vowel is never written alone in a block. When a syllable starts with a vowel sound, you write the silent consonant ㅇ in front of it: 아, 오, 우. The ㅇ is just a place-holder here.

Two vowels need care. ㅓ (eo) is an open sound, close to the ‘u’ in ‘cup’ with the mouth rounder. ㅡ (eu) has no English match: say ‘oo’ with your lips spread flat as if smiling.

Step 3. The 14 basic consonants

Learn the consonants in their families: ㄱ ㅋ, ㄴ ㄷ ㅌ, ㅁ ㅂ ㅍ, ㅅ ㅈ ㅊ, ㅇ ㅎ, and ㄹ on its own. Each family is made in the same part of the mouth.

ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ ㅈ are softer than English k, t, p, ch. At the start of a word they sound between g and k, d and t, b and p, j and ch; between two vowels they sound like a clear g, d, b, j.

ㄹ is ‘r’ before a vowel (a quick tap, like the ‘tt’ in American ‘butter’) and ‘l’ at the end of a syllable. ㅇ is silent at the start of a syllable and ‘ng’ (as in ‘sing’) at the end. ㅅ sounds like ‘sh’ before ㅣ: 시 is close to ‘shee’.

Step 4. Building syllable blocks

The shape of the vowel decides the layout. Upright vowels (ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅣ) go to the right of the consonant: 가, 너. Flat vowels (ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ) go under it: 고, 누. Vowels made of both parts wrap around: 과, 뭐.

A final consonant, called batchim (받침, ‘support’), always goes at the bottom of the block: 각, 문, 밤, 강. So a block is consonant + vowel, or consonant + vowel + consonant.

Read a block top-left to bottom-right, the same order you write it. Each block is one beat when you speak.

Step 5. Double consonants: plain, aspirated and tense

Five consonants can be doubled: ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ. They are ‘tense’ sounds: tighten your throat, push no air out, and the pitch goes up a little. They are romanized kk, tt, pp, ss, jj.

This gives Korean three-way sets: plain (ㄱ, light, a little air), aspirated (ㅋ, a strong puff of air) and tense (ㄲ, tight, no air). Hold a sheet of paper in front of your mouth: it should move a lot for ㅋ, a little for ㄱ, and not at all for ㄲ.

These sounds change meaning, so practise them in pairs. English speakers often hear the tense sounds as plain ones at first; listening to the pairs many times fixes this.

Step 6. The 11 compound vowels

The remaining vowels are combinations. ㅐ and ㅔ both sound like the ‘e’ in ‘bed’; in modern Seoul speech most people say them the same way, so 개 (dog) and 게 (crab) sound alike. Learn which one a word uses when you learn its spelling. The same goes for ㅒ and ㅖ (‘ye’ in ‘yes’).

The w-vowels join ㅗ or ㅜ with another vowel: ㅘ (wa), ㅙ (wae), ㅝ (wo), ㅞ (we), ㅟ (wi). ㅚ (oe) is usually said like ‘we’, so ㅙ, ㅚ and ㅞ sound almost the same.

ㅢ (ui) is ㅡ sliding into ㅣ at the start of a word (의자). After a consonant it is said like ㅣ: 희망 (hope) is said [히망]. As the particle 의 (‘of’) it is usually said [에].

Step 7. Batchim: the 7 final sounds

At the end of a syllable, Korean consonants are not released: your mouth moves into place and stops. Because of that, the many letters that can be written as batchim collapse into only 7 sounds: ㄱ [k], ㄴ [n], ㄷ [t], ㄹ [l], ㅁ [m], ㅂ [p], ㅇ [ng].

So 부엌 (kitchen) is said [부억], 꽃 (flower) is said [꼳], and 앞 (front) is said [압]. Do not add a vowel after the last consonant: 밥 is ‘bap’, not ‘ba-pu’.

Some words end in two batchim letters, such as 값 (price) or 닭 (chicken). Alone, only one is said: usually the first (값 [갑], 여덟 [여덜]), but the second for ㄺ and ㄻ (닭 [닥], 삶 [삼]). When a vowel follows, both are heard: 값이 [갑씨], 닭이 [달기].

Step 8. Sound changes you will hear every day

Korean is spelled by meaning, but spoken smoothly, so some letters change sound next to others. Dictionaries show the spoken form in brackets, like [감사함니다]. You do not need every rule now: these five cover most everyday words.

Liaison (연음): a final consonant moves to the next syllable when that one starts with ㅇ. Nasalization (비음화): ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ before ㄴ or ㅁ become ㅇ ㄴ ㅁ, which is why 감사합니다 is said [감사함니다]. ㄴ next to ㄹ becomes ㄹ: 신라 [실라].

Tensification (경음화): after a final ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ, the next ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ ㅅ ㅈ become tense, so 학교 is said [학꾜]. Official romanization does not show this and still writes ‘hakgyo’; the romanization below shows the sound. Palatalization (구개음화): ㄷ ㅌ before 이 become ㅈ ㅊ, so 같이 is said [가치]. ㅎ next to ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ ㅈ makes them aspirated (좋다 [조타]), and ㅎ before a vowel goes silent (좋아요 [조아요]).

Step 9. Reading real words: signs and loanwords

Now read the Korean around you. Many words are loanwords from English, written the way Koreans hear them: English f becomes ㅍ, v becomes ㅂ, and consonants that end in a cluster get an extra ㅡ (bus → 버스, ice cream → 아이스크림).

Some loanwords are Korean inventions: 핸드폰 (‘hand phone’) means mobile phone. Signs use short native or Sino-Korean words; the ones below will get you through a station, a shop and a restaurant.

The romanization in this table is the official spelling you see on road and station signs, so it does not show tensification (입구 is said [입꾸]).

Step 10. Typing Korean on a computer and a phone

Add the Korean keyboard in your operating system’s language or keyboard settings (Windows, macOS, Android and iOS all include it). On a Korean keyboard, the Han/Eng key (한/영) switches between English and Korean; on other keyboards, use your system’s input-switch shortcut.

The standard layout is 2-set (두벌식): consonants under the left hand, vowels under the right. Type the letters in order and the computer builds the blocks for you: G K S R N R gives 한국. Shift gives the double consonants and ㅒ ㅖ. Compound vowels are typed as their parts: ㅘ is ㅗ then ㅏ.

On a phone you can choose the same 2-set QWERTY layout. Many phones also offer a 10-key layout called 천지인 (Cheonjiin, ‘heaven-earth-human’): its three vowel keys are the dot, ㅡ and ㅣ, the same three elements King Sejong used.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Study tips for this stage

• Study in short daily sessions: 30 minutes every day beats 3 hours once a week for learning an alphabet.
• Write by hand while saying the sound out loud. Hand, eye and ear together make the letters stick faster.
• Use spaced repetition: make flashcards of the letters and the example words and review the ones you miss more often.
• Shadowing: play a word in the dictionary, pause, and repeat it with the same rhythm. Record yourself and compare.
• Read real Korean early: signs, subtitles, song titles, food labels. Sounding out words you care about is the best practice.
• Stop using romanization as soon as you can read slowly. Cover it in this course and check it only after you read.
• Learn the letters in families (ㄱ ㅋ ㄲ, ㄷ ㅌ ㄸ …). The shapes and the sounds then explain each other.

Free official resources

• Basic Korean Dictionary (NIKL) — Free learner dictionary in many languages, with audio and the pronunciation of each word in brackets.
• National Institute of Korean Language — The official body for standard Korean spelling, pronunciation and romanization rules.
• King Sejong Institute Foundation — Official Korean courses for foreigners and a finder for King Sejong Institutes around the world.

Where this stage fits

Next stage: 2. Beginner → Whole course: Learn Korean step by step.

FAQ

How long does it take to learn Hangul?

Most learners can read Hangul slowly within a week at about 30 minutes a day. Reading smoothly, with the batchim and sound-change rules, takes a few more weeks of practice.

Is Hangul hard to learn?

No. It has 24 basic letters that combine into 40, the shapes follow the sounds, and every letter is always read the same way inside the block. Most of the effort goes into a few sounds English does not have, such as ㅓ, ㅡ and the tense consonants.

Can I learn Korean with romanization instead of Hangul?

Only for a few days. Romanization hides important sounds, dictionaries and textbooks are written in Hangul, and signs in Korea are mostly Hangul. Learning Hangul first saves time later.

Why is 감사합니다 pronounced 감사함니다?

This is nasalization: a final ㅂ before ㄴ is said as ㅁ, so 합니다 becomes [함니다]. The spelling stays 감사합니다 because Korean is spelled by the parts of the word, not by the sound.

What is the difference between ㅐ and ㅔ?

In today’s standard speech most people pronounce them the same, like the ‘e’ in ‘bed’. The difference matters only in spelling, so learn each word with its correct letter (개 dog, 게 crab).

How do I type Korean on my phone or computer?

Add the Korean keyboard in your device’s language or keyboard settings and use the 2-set (두벌식) layout: type the letters in order and the blocks form automatically.

Romanization: Revised Romanization of Korean. ▶ sounds use your browser’s Korean voice. Levels follow TOPIK and the King Sejong Institute standard curriculum; this course is independent and free.