Hangul facts for kids

A page from the Hunmin Jeong-eum Eonhae. The Hangul-only column, third from the left (나랏말ᄊᆞ미), has pitch-accent diacritics to the left of the syllable blocks.

Hangul or Hangeul (Korean: 한글) is the special alphabet used to write the Korean language. It's also used for the Cia-Cia language in parts of Indonesia.

King Sejong the Great, who was the 4th King of the Joseon Dynasty, created Hangul in 1443. It's still used by millions of people today! To help everyone learn Hangul, King Sejong published a book called Hunminjeong'eum Haeryebon. This important book was recognized by UNESCO in 1997 as a "Memory of the World." It explains exactly how Hangul was designed and how to use it.

The Hunminjeong'eum Haeryebon book shares two main ideas behind Hangul's design. First, the shapes of the consonant letters look like the parts of your mouth and throat that you use to make those sounds. Second, the vowel letters are based on "Cheonji'in" (천지인). This refers to three basic ideas: the sky (천), the earth (지), and humans (인). Because of these clever design ideas, Hangul is known for being very easy to learn!

Even though Hangul was first mostly used by common people, it became the official writing system of Korea in the late 1800s. Today, it's the main way people write in both North and South Korea. North Korea uses only Hangul. In South Korea, people mostly write in Hangul, but sometimes they still use older Chinese characters called Hanja.

Understanding Hangul Vowels

Vowels are letters like A, E, I, O, U. In Hangul, there are 21 vowel letters.

• There are 10 simple vowels: ㅏㅓㅣㅑㅕ and ㅗㅜㅡㅛㅠ.
• There are 11 more complex vowels, which are combinations of the simple ones: ㅐㅒㅔㅖ and ㅘㅙㅚㅝㅞㅟㅢ.

Here's what some of them mean:

If a vowel letter has two small lines, it usually means you add an extra "y" sound at the beginning when you say it.

Exploring Hangul Consonants

Consonants are letters like B, G, L, M, N, S. Hangul has 14 simple consonant letters: ㄱㄴㄷㄹㅁㅂㅅㅇㅈㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ.

Sometimes, these consonants can be written twice next to each other to make a slightly different sound.

Here's how some of them sound:

How Hangul Forms Syllable Blocks

In Hangul, consonants and vowels are put together to form "blocks" that represent one syllable. A syllable is a single sound unit, like "han" in "Hangul" or "gul" in "Hangul."

These blocks are how Korean words are written. Here are some examples: 서울 한글 평양

Examples of Hangul Words

Let's look at how some common Korean words are put together:

Images for kids

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  Songangasa, a collection of poems by Jeong Cheol, printed in 1768.

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  An elementary school sign in Baubau, Indonesia, written in Indonesian and Korean (in the Latin and Hangul alphabets respectively)

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  The shape of tongue when pronouncing ㄱ (g)

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  The shape of tongue when pronouncing ㄴ (n)

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  The shape of teeth and tongue when pronouncing ㅅ (s)

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  ㅇ (ng) is similar to the throat hole.

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  ㅁ (m) is similar to a closed mouth.

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  A close-up of the inscription on the statue of King Sejong. It reads Sejong Daewang 세종대왕 and shows the original forms of the letters.

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  Hankido [H.N-GI-DO], a martial art, using the obsolete vowel arae-a (top)

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  The words 놉니다, 흘렀다, 깨달으니, 지어, 고와, 왕, 가져서 written in New Orthography.

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  Computer Modern Unicode Oesol, a linear Hangul font. The text is a pangram (a sentence using every letter) that reads: "웬 초콜릿? 제가 원했던 건 뻥튀기 쬐끔과 의류예요." "얘야, 왜 또 불평?"

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  The U.S. city of Gardena written in the Korean alphabet.

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  ㄱ (giyeok 기역)

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  ㄴ (nieun 니은)

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  ㄷ (digeut 디귿)

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  ㄹ (rieul 리을)

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  ㅁ (mieum 미음)

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  ㅂ (bieup 비읍)

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  ㅅ (siot 시옷)

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  ㅇ (ieung 이응)

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  ㅈ (jieut 지읒)

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  ㅊ (chieut 치읓)

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  ㅋ (ḳieuk 키읔)

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  ㅌ (ṭieut 티읕)

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  ㅍ (p̣ieup 피읖)

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  ㅎ (hieuh 히읗)

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  ㅏ (a)

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  ㅐ (ae)

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  ㅓ (eo)

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  ㅔ (e)

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  ㅗ (o)

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  ㅜ (u)

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  ㅡ (eu)

See also

In Spanish: Hangul para niños