In our previous post, we learned the Korean vowels. Now it’s time to learn the consonants.
A Korean syllable block always starts with a consonant. Here are the basic Korean consonants and their English equivalents to help you remember them quickly!
The Basic 14 Consonants
- ㄱ (g/k): Sounds like ‘g’ in go.
- ㄴ (n): Sounds like ‘n’ in now.
- ㄷ (d/t): Sounds like ‘d’ in dog.
- ㄹ (r/l): This is a mix between ‘r’ and ‘l’. It sounds like the soft ‘dd’ in the word ladder.
- ㅁ (m): Sounds like ‘m’ in mom.
- ㅂ (b/p): Sounds like ‘b’ in boy.
- ㅅ (s): Sounds like ‘s’ in sun.
- ㅇ (silent / ng): This is a special one! We will explain this magic circle below.
- ㅈ (j): Sounds like ‘j’ in jump.
- ㅊ (ch): Sounds like ‘ch’ in chat.
- ㅋ (k): Sounds like ‘k’ in king.
- ㅌ (t): Sounds like ‘t’ in top.
- ㅍ (p): Sounds like ‘p’ in park.
- ㅎ (h): Sounds like ‘h’ in hat.
The Magic Circle ‘ㅇ’ In Korean, every block MUST start with a consonant. But what if you just want to say the vowel sound “A” (ㅏ)? You use the empty circle ㅇ as a silent placeholder!
- ㅇ + ㅏ = 아 (a)
If you see ㅇ at the beginning of a block, it is silent. (If it is at the bottom, it sounds like ‘ng’, like in song!).
🎁 Want a handy cheat sheet? Download my free [Hangul Starter Pack PDF] to keep these consonants on your phone or print them out!
