The following tables of consonants and vowels (jamo) of the Korean alphabet (Hangul) display (in blue) the basic forms in the first row and their derivatives in the following row(s). They are divided into initials (leading consonants), vowels (middle), and finals tables (trailing consonants).
The jamo shown below are individually romanized according to the Revised Romanization of Hangeul (RR Transliteration), which is a system of transliteration rules between the Korean and Roman alphabets, originating from South Korea. However, the tables below are not sufficient for normal transcription of the Korean language as the overarching Revised Romanization of Korean system takes contextual sound changes into account.
Called choseong, or "initials", there are 19 initial consonants, whereof one (ㅇ) is silent, and five (ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ) are doubled:
| Basic jamo | Hangul | ㄱ | ㄴ | ㄷ | ㄹ | ㅁ | ㅂ | ㅅ | ㅇ | ㅈ | ㅊ | ㅋ | ㅌ | ㅍ | ㅎ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roman | g/k | n | d | r/l | m | b | s | -/ng | j | ch | k | t | p | h | |
| Composite | Hangul | ㄲ | ㄸ | ㅃ | ㅆ | ㅉ | |||||||||
| Roman | gg/kk | tt | bb/pp | ss | jj |
Called jungseong, or "vowels", there are 21 medial vowels:
| Basic form | +e/i | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic jamo | Hangul | ㅏ | ㅓ | ㅗ | ㅜ | ㅡ | ㅣ | ㅐ | ㅔ | ㅚ | ㅟ | ㅢ | |
| Roman | a | eo | o | u | eu | i | ae | e | oe | wi | ui | ||
| y+ | Hangul | ㅑ | ㅕ | ㅛ | ㅠ | ㅒ | ㅖ | ||||||
| Roman | ya | yeo | yo | yu | yae | ye | |||||||
| w+ | Hangul | ㅘ | ㅝ | ㅚ | ㅟ | ㅙ | ㅞ | ||||||
| Roman | wa | wo | oe | wi | wae | we | |||||||
Called jongseong, or "finals", there are 27 final consonants; with the additional case of no final consonant, there is a total of 28 possibilities:
| Basic jamo | Hangul | ㄱ | ㄴ | ㄷ | ㄹ | ㅁ | ㅂ | ㅅ | ㅇ | ㅈ | ㅊ | ㅋ | ㅌ | ㅍ | ㅎ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roman | g | n | d | r/l | m | b | s | ng | j | ch | k | t | p | h | |
| Composite | Hangul | ㄲ | ㄵ | ㄺ | ㅄ | ㅆ | |||||||||
| Roman | kk | nj | lg | bs | ss | ||||||||||
| Hangul | ㄳ | ㄶ | ㄻ | ||||||||||||
| Roman | gs | nh | lm | ||||||||||||
| Hangul | ㄼ | ||||||||||||||
| Roman | lb | ||||||||||||||
| Hangul | ㄽ | ||||||||||||||
| Roman | ls | ||||||||||||||
| Hangul | ㄾ | ||||||||||||||
| Roman | lt | ||||||||||||||
| Hangul | ㄿ | ||||||||||||||
| Roman | lp | ||||||||||||||
| Hangul | ㅀ | ||||||||||||||
| Roman | lh |
Several collation sequences are used to order words (like alphabetical sorting). The North and South differ on (a) the treatment of composite jamo consonants in syllable-leading (choseong) and -trailing (jongseong) position, and (b) on the treatment of composite jamo vowels in syllable-medial (jungseong) position.
This first sequence is official in South Korea (and is the basic binary order of codepoints in Unicode):
| Principle | Sort every composite jamo grouped after their leading single jamo | |
|---|---|---|
| Initial consonants | ㄱ ㄲㄴㄷ ㄸㄹㅁㅂ ㅃㅅ ㅆㅇㅈ ㅉㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ | |
| Vowels | ㅏ ㅐㅑ ㅒㅓ ㅔㅕ ㅖㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚㅛㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟㅠㅡ ㅢㅣ | |
| Final consonants | ㄱ ㄲ ㄳㄴ ㄵ ㄶㄷㄹ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀㅁㅂ ㅄㅅ ㅆㅇㅈㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ |
| Principle | Initial consonants: All single jamo (except ieung ㅇ) before all doubled jamo; ieung after the doubled jamo Vowels: All single jamo before all composite jamo; for composite jamo, all digraphs before all trigraphs; for digraphs, the ones ending in ㅣ precede others. Final consonants: Doubled jamo after single and composite jamo | |
|---|---|---|
| Initial consonants | ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉㅇ | |
| Vowels | ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ ㅚ ㅟ ㅢㅘ ㅝㅙ ㅞ | |
| Final consonants | ㄱ ㄳ ㄴ ㄵ ㄶ ㄷ ㄹ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ ㅁ ㅂ ㅄ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎㄲ ㅆ |
| Consonant | South Korean name | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hangul | Romanized | Hangul | Romanized | |
| Korean: ㄱ | g | Korean: 기역 | giyeok | |
| Korean: ㄲ | kk | Korean: 쌍기역 | ssanggiyeok | |
| Korean: ㄴ | n | Korean: 니은 | nieun | |
| Korean: ㄷ | d | Korean: 디귿 | digeut | |
| Korean: ㄸ | tt | Korean: 쌍디귿 | ssangdigeut | |
| Korean: ㄹ | r, l | Korean: 리을 | rieul | |
| Korean: ㅁ | m | Korean: 미음 | mieum | |
| Korean: ㅂ | b | Korean: 비읍 | bieup | |
| Korean: ㅃ | pp | Korean: 쌍비읍 | ssangbieup | |
| Korean: ㅅ | s | Korean: 시옷 | siot | |
| Korean: ㅆ | ss | Korean: 쌍시옷 | ssangsiot | |
| Korean: ㅇ | -, -ng | Korean: 이응 | ieung | |
| Korean: ㅈ | j | Korean: 지읒 | jieut | |
| Korean: ㅉ | jj | Korean: 쌍지읒 | ssangjieut | |
| Korean: ㅊ | ch | Korean: 치읓 | chieut | |
| Korean: ㅋ | k | Korean: 키읔 | kieuk | |
| Korean: ㅌ | t | Korean: 티읕 | tieut | |
| Korean: ㅍ | p | Korean: 피읖 | pieup | |
| Korean: ㅎ | h | Korean: 히읗 | hieut | |
* Consonant names in the 15th century seem to have ended in a vowel (without adding the last consonant repeating a shortened version of the initial), judging from 1451 Hunmin Jeongeum Eonhae's forms such as "Korean: ㄱ는", which may have been pronounced geuneun.
The "names" of the vowels are given according to the sound they make (their pronunciation). To be technical, the silent consonant would be added before the sound (e.g., ㅏ becomes 아).
See also: List of modern Hangul characters in ISO/IEC 2022–compliant national character set standards. With 19 possible initial consonants, 21 possible medial (one- or two-letter) vowels, and 28 possible final consonants (of which one corresponds to the case of no final consonant), there are a total of theoretically possible "Korean syllable letters" which are contiguously encoded in the 11,172 Unicode code points from U+AC00 (Decimal:) through U+D7A3 (Decimal: = 44,032 + 11,171) within the Hangul Syllables Unicode block. However, the majority of these theoretically possible syllables do not correspond to syllables found in actual Korean words or proper names.
Jump to tables with initial letter: