Build a block · 글자 만들기
First sound
Vowel
Ending
Play · Effortless Korean
Play · 놀아보기
Build it. Hear it. Guess it.
New · Say it to pass → Read a name out loud to open the gate. 소리 내어 읽으면 통과.
Guess the name · 이름 맞히기
Five Hangulish names. Whose are they?
Tap a name · 이름을 눌러 보세요
Did you know? · 알고 계셨나요?
28
Twenty-eight letters
The preface of the annotated edition says the king made twenty-eight new letters so that everyone could learn them easily and use them every day. Today's alphabet keeps 24 of them.
ㆍ ㅡ ㅣ
Sky, earth, person
The three base vowels are a dot (sky 天), a flat line (earth 地) and an upright line (person 人). The other vowels are built from them.
8
Eight endings are enough
The Haerye says eight letters are enough for the last sound of a block: ㄱ ㆁ ㄷ ㄴ ㅂ ㅁ ㅅ ㄹ. That is the root of our ending rule: K, NG, T, N, P, M, L.
○
ㅇ is “thin and empty”
The Haerye describes the sound of ㅇ as thin and empty (淡而虗), so it is not needed at the end of a block, and the vowel alone can make the sound. It is why we draw the silent start as an empty seat.
· ··
Dots once marked the pitch
The first edition added dots to the left of a block to show pitch: one dot for the highest sound, two dots for a rising one, none for the plain one. Modern Hangul dropped them.
君 業
The first sound sits above or left
The Haerye places the first sound above the vowel or to its left. Its examples: in 君 the ㄱ sits above ㅜ, and in 業 the ㆁ sits left of ㅓ. This is the block shape every Hangulish name follows.