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).
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
Collation
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):
South Korean collation
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
Sequences of this second type are common in North Korea:
North Korean collation
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
* 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 "ㄱ는", which may have been pronounced geuneun.
Vowels
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).
Hangul syllables
"Hangul syllables" redirects here. For the Unicode block, see Hangul Syllables.
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 19 × 21 × 28 = 11,172theoretically possible "Korean syllable letters" (Korean:글자;RR:geulja;lit.letter) which are contiguously encoded in the 11,172 Unicode code points from U+AC00 (Decimal: 44,03210) through U+D7A3 (Decimal: 55,20310= 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.
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