Hangul Cheat Sheet: the Korean Alphabet on One Page
Every letter of the Korean alphabet on one free chart: vowels, consonants, double consonants, and batchim.
Published: June 30, 2026
Hangul is the Korean alphabet: 40 characters that stack into syllable blocks. It can easily be learned in an afternoon, and the chart below is pretty much everything you need to start reading Korean.
Of course, hangul isn't quite as simple as memorizing what's below. You still have to learn to recognize the sounds and pronounce each character. That's why we built a hangul course designed for exactly that: read-and-pronounce syllables, and listen-and-type syllables spoken by a native Korean. Try it out.
1 How Korean Syllable Blocks Work · 음절
A block is one syllable: a consonant and a vowel, plus an optional final consonant called the 받침 (batchim). Example: ㅂ (b) + ㅏ (a) + ㅁ (m) = 밤.
Where the vowel sits:
goes right
goes below
below + right
3 All 21 Korean Vowels· 모음
의 actually has three sounds · context decides
| "ui" 의 | first syllable, no consonant | 의사 doctor |
| "e" 에 | the possessive "of" | 나의→나에 (my) |
| "i" 이 | anywhere elsemost cases | 희망→히망 · 회의→회이 |
5 Double (Tense) & Aspirated Consonants · 된소리·거센소리
Five plain consonants each gain a tense twin; four also gain an aspirated cousin. Same mouth shape, different force.
| Plain | Tense | Aspirated | |
|---|---|---|---|
| k-family | ㄱg / k | ㄲkk | ㅋk |
| t-family | ㄷd / t | ㄸtt | ㅌt |
| p-family | ㅂb / p | ㅃpp | ㅍp |
| s-family | ㅅs / t | ㅆss | – |
| j-family | ㅈj / t | ㅉjj | ㅊch |
Romanization is writing Korean sounds with English letters. But English and Korean sounds aren't the same, so these spellings are only rough approximations, and they quietly train an English accent that's hard to unlearn.
For example:
Use it to learn 한글 more quickly, then drop it as soon as you can.
4 Basic Korean Consonants · 자음
Same letter, two jobs. A consonant's sound at the start of a block can differ from its sound at the end.
| Initial | Final | |
|---|---|---|
| ㄱ | g | k |
| ㄴ | n | n |
| ㄷ | d | t |
| ㄹ | r | l |
| ㅁ | m | m |
| ㅂ | b | p |
| ㅅ | s* | t |
| ㅇ | silent | ng |
| ㅈ | j | t |
| ㅎ | h | t |
* ㅅ → "sh" before an i/y vowel
6 Batchim: Final Consonant Sounds · 받침
No matter what's written, every block-final consonant lands on just one of 7 sounds.
| ㄱ [k] | ㄱ · ㅋ · ㄲ |
| ㄴ [n] | ㄴ |
| ㄷ [t] | ㄷ · ㅌ · ㅅ · ㅆ · ㅈ · ㅊ · ㅎ |
| ㄹ [l] | ㄹ |
| ㅁ [m] | ㅁ |
| ㅂ [p] | ㅂ · ㅍ |
| ㅇ [ŋ] | ㅇ |
Compound finals (겹받침): 11 double endings, one sound each
Which letter wins isn't always obvious, so learn these as you meet them.
You've now got the letters and their core sounds. Unfortunately, Korean has a lot of pronunciation rules: once letters sit next to each other, the sounds often shift in ways the spelling won't predict. No need to learn them yet, but here are a few common ones you'll meet early:
There are dozens more. Don't memorize them now. You'll absorb them word by word, rule by rule, as you progress through our curriculum. More on how the app pinpoints these in our note on real Korean pronunciation feedback.
Printable Korean alphabet chart (free)
Want it on paper? Open the printable Korean alphabet chart and print it, or save it as a PDF from the print dialog. Stick it next to your desk until reading Korean is automatic, then recycle it.