Hangul the 40 letters

19 consonants (14 basic, 5 doubled) and 21 vowels (10 basic, 11 combined). A syllable is written as a block: a consonant, a vowel, and sometimes a final consonant.

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Where the letters come from

King Sejong of the Joseon dynasty had the alphabet made in 1443 and published it in 1446 in a book called Hunminjeongeum, "the correct sounds for teaching the people". Before it, Korean was written with Chinese characters, which few people outside the court could read. South Korea marks the publication on Hangul Day, 9 October; North Korea marks its own day on 15 January.

The basic consonants are drawn from the mouth that makes them. The letter for g or k shows the back of the tongue raised against the soft palate; the letter for n shows the tip of the tongue touching the ridge behind the teeth; m is the closed mouth, s is a tooth, and the circle is the open throat. Stronger sounds add a stroke to the basic shape, and the doubled letters write a tense sound with two of the same letter side by side.

The vowels are built from three marks: a dot for heaven, a flat line for the earth and an upright line for a person. A short stroke on one side of a line or the other gives a different vowel, and two strokes add a y sound in front of it.

How a syllable block is put together

Every syllable starts with a consonant. When it starts with a vowel sound, the silent circle stands in the consonant's place. A vowel with a tall upright line, such as a or i, goes to the right of the consonant; a vowel with a flat line, such as o or u, goes underneath it. A final consonant, when there is one, sits at the bottom of the block. Blocks are read left to right, and words are separated by spaces, as in English.

At the end of a syllable, the final consonants are pronounced as only seven sounds: k, n, t, l, m, p and ng. Several letters that differ before a vowel sound the same in this position, which is why the romanization table gives two values for some letters. Romanization here follows the Revised Romanization of Korean, which South Korea adopted in 2000.

Consonants

Where two are given, the first is written before a vowel and the second before a consonant or at the end of a word. ㅇ is silent at the start of a syllable.

Vowels

Final consonants

The 27 that can close a syllable: ㄱ ㄲ ㄳ ㄴ ㄵ ㄶ ㄷ ㄹ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ ㅁ ㅂ ㅄ ㅅ ㅆ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ

The syllable chart

The 14 basic consonants across the 10 basic vowels, as the app's Hangul tab teaches them, a row a lesson.

Romanization: the Revised Romanization of Korean (National Institute of Korean Language).

The lessons: TOPIK levels 1–6, 872 in all.