The 14 Basic Consonants, Grouped by How You Say Them

Hangul consonants are drawn from the shape of the mouth that makes them. Learn all 14 basic consonants in five articulation groups instead of memorising a flat list.

7 min readΒ·

Most alphabet charts hand you fourteen consonants in a row and wish you luck. That order comes from dictionary convention, not from anything about the letters, which is why it is so hard to hold on to.

Hangul rewards a different approach. The letters were designed in the 1440s around a single idea: a consonant should look like the mouth that produces it. Learn the five base shapes and where they come from, and the remaining nine stop being new letters at all β€” they are the same shapes with strokes added.

Five shapes, five places in the mouth

Every consonant in Hangul traces back to one of five base characters, each drawn from a different articulator β€” the part of your mouth doing the work.

Say each of these out loud and pay attention to what moves. The connection is not a metaphor; it is close to a diagram.

  • β€’γ„± (g/k) β€” the back of the tongue rising toward the soft palate. The letter is that raised shape, seen from the side.
  • β€’γ„΄ (n) β€” the tip of the tongue touching the ridge behind your upper teeth. The letter is the tongue in that position.
  • ‒ㅁ (m) β€” the outline of closed lips, seen from the front.
  • β€’γ…… (s) β€” the pointed shape of a tooth, where the air narrows and hisses.
  • β€’γ…‡ (ng / silent) β€” the round opening of the throat.

Adding a stroke adds a puff of air

Take a base letter and add one horizontal stroke. The sound stays in the same place in the mouth but gains aspiration β€” a noticeable puff of breath.

Hold a sheet of paper in front of your mouth and say γ„±, then γ…‹. The paper barely moves for the first and jumps for the second. That difference is the entire distinction, and the extra stroke is the notation for it.

  • β€’γ„± β†’ γ…‹ (k, aspirated)
  • β€’γ„· β†’ γ…Œ (t, aspirated)
  • β€’γ…‚ β†’ ㅍ (p, aspirated)
  • β€’γ…ˆ β†’ γ…Š (ch, aspirated)

Two letters that grew out of others

γ„· (d/t) is γ„΄ with a lid on top: the same tongue position, but the airflow is stopped completely instead of flowing through the nose. γ…‚ (b/p) is ㅁ with two upward strokes β€” the lips again, opening rather than staying shut.

γ…ˆ (j) comes from γ……, with a stroke added above. Both are made at the teeth; γ…ˆ simply blocks the air for a moment before releasing it. γ…Ž (h) builds on γ…‡, adding strokes at the throat opening.

That accounts for all fourteen. Five base shapes, four aspirated forms made by adding a stroke, and five letters derived from the bases by the same logic.

The tense consonants are just doubles

Beyond the fourteen, you will meet five doubled letters: γ„², γ„Έ, γ…ƒ, γ…†, γ…‰. They are not new shapes and they are not aspirated. The sound is tense β€” the muscles in your throat tighten and the release is sharp and dry, with less air than the plain version rather than more.

English does not mark this distinction, so it usually takes longer to hear than to read. The good news is that reading them requires nothing new: if you know γ„±, you can already read γ„².

A practice order that works better than the chart

Rather than working alphabetically, learn one articulation group at a time and finish it before moving on. A group takes a few minutes, and each one you close makes the next smaller.

  • β€’Day 1 β€” ㅁ, γ…‚, ㅍ (lips). Three letters, one place in the mouth.
  • β€’Day 2 β€” γ„΄, γ„·, γ…Œ (tongue tip).
  • β€’Day 3 β€” γ……, γ…ˆ, γ…Š (teeth).
  • β€’Day 4 β€” γ„±, γ…‹ (back of tongue) and γ…‡, γ…Ž (throat).
  • β€’Day 5 β€” γ„Ή, which sits between an English r and l, plus a review pass over everything.

What γ„Ή is actually doing

γ„Ή is the one letter that resists a tidy English comparison. At the start of a syllable it is a light tap, close to the r in a quickly spoken "very". At the end of a syllable it flattens into something much nearer to l.

It is the same letter and the same tongue movement; only the timing changes. Learners who try to file it under either r or l tend to fight it for months. Treating it as its own sound, learned from listening rather than from a chart, is considerably faster.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do romanizations write γ„± sometimes as g and sometimes as k?

Because the sound genuinely shifts with position. At the start of a word it lands closer to k, between vowels it softens toward g, and at the end of a syllable it stops without release. Korean treats these as one letter, and once you read Hangul directly you no longer have to think about which English letter to assign.

Do I need to learn stroke order?

For reading, no. For handwriting it helps, because Korean stroke order follows consistent rules β€” top to bottom, left to right β€” and letters written in the wrong order tend to come out misshapen. Learning it while you first meet each letter costs almost nothing.

How long before I can read consonants at natural speed?

Recognising all fourteen usually takes a day or two. Reading them at conversational speed inside real syllable blocks takes a few weeks of short daily practice, which is why speed drills matter more than another pass over the chart.

Practise this

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