We will teach you the Korean alphabet "Hangul"!

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“A wise person can familiarize himself with it before the morning is over; even a stupid person can learn it in ten days.” According to the well-known saying, it doesn't take much to learn the Korean alphabet “Hangul”. For those who would like to get started now and still need some help getting started, we have put together some basic information here. Among other things, we will introduce you to the alphabet in detail!

You can find out more about the history of Hangul here!

As just mentioned, the term “Hangul” refers to the Korean alphabet. It is used in both South Korea and North Korea; But the North Koreans call it “Joseon’geul”.

Hangul combines elements of alphabetic scripts and syllabic scripts. In alphabetic scripts (such as our Roman script) a character/letter stands for a speech sound. In syllabic scripts - such as the Japanese script “Katakana” - each character represents a whole syllable or combination of letters instead of just a speech sound.

In Hangul, most characters represent a speech sound, but there are also complex characters that represent letter combinations; In addition, the characters are assembled into blocks of syllables. That sounds more complicated than it is!

Let's look at the Hangul alphabet together:

Basically there are 14 consonants and 10 vowels. There are also 5 tense consonants and 11 complex vowels. The tense consonants are simply double consonants, which is why they are also called “twin letters” in Korean. The complex vowels are formed by the combinations of simple vowels.

Consonants:

The tense consonants are blue.

Whether the consonants are pronounced softly or hard - for example ㅂ as “b” or “p” - depends on whether they are at the beginning or end of a syllable.

Vowels:

The complex vowels are blue.

Once you've learned the signs, you're already halfway there!

The next step: How are the characters put together to form blocks of syllables?

This is also easier than it looks. To explain, let's take a well-known example:

BTS = Bangtan Sonyeondan

As you may know, “Bangtan Sonyeondan” is the Korean name of BTS and literally translates to “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”.

First the word is divided into syllables: Bang - tan - So - nyeon - dan

And now each syllable is translated individually. For the syllable “Bang” we need “b” (ㅂ), “a” (ㅏ) and “ng” (​​ㅇ). If you haven't yet memorized the characters, you can simply use the tables as a guide.

Together, the three characters then form a block of syllables: 방

But how do you know how the characters are arranged within the syllable block? There are a few simple rules and tricks for this!

• Hangul is read from left to right. Within the syllables also applies from left to right and then from top to bottom.
• In written form, a syllable ALWAYS begins with a consonant followed by a vowel. Each syllable therefore consists of at least two and at most three characters. (Two characters = consonant, vowel. Three characters = consonant, vowel, consonant.)
• Of course, there are also syllables that, when spoken, begin with a vowel, such as the syllable “i” in the word “ireum” (Korean for “name”). In this case, ㅇ is always placed as a silent consonant before the vowel: 이
  (more examples of a silent ㅇ: 있, 어, 요, 야)
• All vowels that consist of a vertical line (ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅣ) become right set by the consonant: 바
• All vowels that consist of a horizontal line (ㅗ, ㅛ, ㅜ, ㅠ, ㅡ) are listed below the consonant is set: 소
• If the syllable consists of three characters, the third (always a consonant) is placed below the other two characters: 방, 탄 , 년, 단

Spaces are used to separate words.

I will go to Korea next year. = I will go to Korea next year.
(the red moon-and the hangug-the geoyoyo gal)

Once you understand the system, Hangul is very simple. The alphabet is also considered particularly logical, easy to remember and easy to learn compared to others in the world. This is one of the reasons why there are hardly any people in Korea who cannot read or write.
As you may have already noticed, Hangul, for example, is not case sensitive either. That's why we don't have to learn two spellings for each character like in our Roman alphabet.

If you know Hangul, you've already overcome one hurdle!

Of course, if you really want to read Korean, you still have to learn the language. Maybe what you can do now is enough for you, but that's it. We ourselves like to use our knowledge of Hangul to decipher idol names in the credits of K-Pop albums or elsewhere! In order to read names, you don’t need any language skills other than “Hangul”!

By the way, our name “Nolae” (Korean for “song”) is written like this: 노래

If you now feel like writing a few words to your friends in Korean, you can try it out on your cell phone. Many of them have a Korean keyboard. As you write, the blocks of syllables put themselves together, so it might even be a learning aid.

Bonus:

The Korean alphabet has its own national day of remembrance in Korea: October 9th is a public holiday in South Korea.