Congratulations on your decision to start learning Hangeul, the Korean script! You will see that being able to read Korean will baffle your friends and enrich your life. Also, you will no longer be completely illiterate when travelling to Korea.

Even though Korean may look similar to Chinese or Japanese to the uninitiated, it is actually much easier because the characters are a combination of just 24 letters (jamo) and a few simple variations, rather than thousands of drawings to memorize. So even going at a relaxed pace of 4 letters per lesson, you will have learned everything you need to read Korean after just a few lessons, compared with the years of training required to master the Japanese or Chinese scripts!

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First letters

First we will learn the Korean letters (jamo) for "A" and "B".

===B===

Letter (jamo):	ㅂ
Pronunciation:	b or p

stroke order

The letter ㅂ (called bieup) is pronounced somewhat like the English b sound. It can also sound like the English p sound but it is not aspirated. That is, it is said without a burst of air. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, put a hand or a lit candle in front of your mouth and say "pin" (pʰɪn) and then "spin" (spɪn). You should either feel a puff of air or see a flicker of the candle flame with "pin" that does appear with "spin".

So, ㅂ sounds like the b in in the English word "bin" or like the p in the English word "spin".

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A

Letter (jamo):	ㅏ
Pronunciation:	a

The letter ㅏ (a) represents the vowel a as in father.

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Combining letters

To combine them into a complete Korean character, fit them into an imaginary little square box:

Letter (jamo):	ㅂ	ㅏ	바
Romanization:	b	a	ba
Pronunciation:	p	a	pa

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N

{{Korean | jamo=ㄴ (nieun) | | Now, the next important letter to learn is ㄴ (nieun):

Letter (jamo):	ㄴ
Pronunciation:	n

The letter ㄴ (nieun) represents the n sound.



Notice how the letter ㄴ (n) combines with the letter ㅏ (a) to make the character 나 (na):

Letter (jamo):	ㄴ	ㅏ	=>	나
Pronunciation:	n	a	na

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Initial consonant placeholder

Every Korean character represents one syllable, and each starts with a space for a consonant. But some syllables start with a vowel, such as the beginning of the Korean greeting "annyeong haseyo". Those syllables use the placeholder ㅇ (called ieung) for the initial consonant. It's easy to remember the placeholder because it has zero pronunciation and is written like the number zero (0):

Letter (jamo):	O
Pronunciation:

To make a syllable that starts with a vowel, write the placeholder O followed by that vowel:

Letter (jamo):	O	ㅏ	=>	아
Pronunciation:	(silent)	a	a

So, the initial consonant placeholder O (ieung) combines with ㅏ (a) to make the word 아 (a, meaning "ah" or "oh").



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Syllables with a final consonant

Some syllables end in a consonant, especially when a word has a cluster of two consonants in the middle: one consonant then forms the end of one syllable and the other forms the beginning of the next syllable. Fitting two consonants and a vowel into a little square box is a little trickier. First write the initial consonant and the vowel next to each other as before, then put the final consonant below them. For example:

Letter (jamo):	ㅂ	ㅏ	=>	반
ㄴ
Romanization:	b a n		ban
Pronunciation:	p a n		pan