How the Consonants Were Designed
Discover how the five basic consonants ㄱ ㄴ ㅁ ㅅ ㅇ copy the shape of the mouth and throat, and how adding strokes made the rest.
Professor Hangyeol · The history, culture and advanced expressions of HangeulWhat you will learn in this lesson
- Explain how the five basic consonants copy the shape of speech organs
- Understand the idea of adding strokes (가획) to show stronger sounds
- Group consonants into families by where they are pronounced
- Learn words such as 자음, 입, 혀, 이 and 목구멍
Hello again, my friend. Today, I want you to look in a mirror while we talk. Long ago, King Sejong studied the mouth very carefully, and he drew what he saw. Let us see if you can find it too.
Letters that are pictures of the mouth
Most alphabets in the world grew slowly over thousands of years. Their shapes changed again and again, and today nobody can easily see why a letter looks the way it does.
Hangul is different. It was designed on purpose, and the book 훈민정음 explains the design. For the consonants, the main idea is this: each basic consonant is a picture of the speech organs making that sound. In other words, the shape of the letter shows the shape of the tongue, lips, teeth or throat.
Koreans call consonants 자음 and vowels 모음. In this lesson, we look at the 자음.
Words for this lesson
- 자음 jaeum consonant
- 모음 moeum vowel
- 입 ip mouth
- 입술 ipsul lips
- 혀 hyeo tongue
- 이 i tooth, teeth
- 목구멍 [목꾸멍] mokgumeong throat
- 획 hoek a stroke (of a written letter)
Five basic shapes
The book 훈민정음, published in 1446, explains that the consonants start from five basic shapes. Each one belongs to a different part of the mouth.
ㄱ shows the back of the tongue rising up and blocking the throat. Say 'k' or 'g' slowly and feel the back of your tongue touch the roof of your mouth. The shape of ㄱ looks like the tongue bent at that point.
ㄴ shows the tip of the tongue touching the ridge behind the upper teeth. Say 'n' and feel it. The shape of ㄴ looks like the tongue going up to touch that spot.
ㅁ shows the shape of the mouth, with the lips closed. Say 'm' and your lips press together. The square is the mouth.
ㅅ shows the shape of a tooth. The sound 's' is made close to the teeth.
ㅇ shows the round shape of the throat. Sounds made deep in the throat are written with this circle.
The five basic consonants
| Letter | Speech organ | What the shape shows |
|---|---|---|
| ㄱ | back of the tongue | The back of the tongue rising to block the throat |
| ㄴ | tip of the tongue | The tongue tip touching behind the upper teeth |
| ㅁ | lips | The shape of the mouth |
| ㅅ | teeth | The shape of a tooth |
| ㅇ | throat | The round shape of the throat |
Try saying each sound slowly and notice what your mouth is doing.
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When I first learned this as a schoolboy, I sat in front of my mother's mirror and said 'ㄴ, ㄴ, ㄴ' for ten minutes. She thought I was very strange! But it is a wonderful feeling when you see the letter in your own mouth.
Adding strokes for stronger sounds
Five letters are not enough to write all Korean consonants. So how did King Sejong make the rest? He used a beautiful rule: add a stroke when the sound becomes stronger. In Korean this is called 가획, which means 'adding a stroke'.
Take ㄴ. If you add one line on top, you get ㄷ. The sound ㄷ is made in the same place as ㄴ, but it is a stronger, sharper sound. Add one more line and you get ㅌ, which has a strong puff of air.
The same idea works for the other families. From ㅁ we get ㅂ and then ㅍ. From ㅅ we get ㅈ and then ㅊ. From ㄱ we get ㅋ. From ㅇ, an old letter ㆆ was made, and then ㅎ.
This means that letters that look alike also sound alike. They are made in the same part of the mouth. Once you know this, the alphabet becomes a family tree instead of a list to memorize.
Watch the strokes grow
- ㄱ → ㅋ Back of the tongue: add a stroke, and the sound gets a strong puff of air. Compare 기 and 키.
- ㄴ → ㄷ → ㅌ Tip of the tongue: each new stroke makes the sound stronger. Compare 나, 다, 타.
- ㅁ → ㅂ → ㅍ Lips: the mouth shape gets extra lines. Compare 마, 바, 파.
- ㅅ → ㅈ → ㅊ Teeth: a line on top, then another small stroke. Compare 사, 자, 차.
- ㅇ → ㆆ → ㅎ Throat: the circle gets strokes on top. ㆆ is no longer used today.
The consonant families
| Family | Basic shape | One stroke added | Two strokes added |
|---|---|---|---|
| Back of the tongue | ㄱ | ㅋ | — |
| Tip of the tongue | ㄴ | ㄷ | ㅌ |
| Lips | ㅁ | ㅂ | ㅍ |
| Teeth | ㅅ | ㅈ | ㅊ |
| Throat | ㅇ | ㆆ | ㅎ |
ㆆ was used in the 15th century but disappeared later.
Three special letters
A few letters do not follow the stroke rule exactly. The book explains that they have different shapes for their own reasons. Two of them are now obsolete, but one is very much alive.
ㄹ is a special tongue letter with its own shape. It is made with the tongue, like ㄴ and ㄷ, but it does not mean 'a stronger ㄷ'. Its sound is lighter and flowing, like a tongue tapping or rolling.
ㅿ was a soft sound related to ㅅ. It is no longer used.
ㆁ was an old letter for the 'ng' sound. It looked like ㅇ with a small mark on top. Today the plain ㅇ does this job: at the end of a syllable, as in 강 (river), ㅇ is read as 'ng'.
Double letters
Modern Korean also has five double consonants: ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ. They are made by writing a basic letter twice, side by side. These sounds are tense and tight. Writing a letter twice to show this was also part of the original system, although the way these sounds were used in the 15th century is a topic that scholars still study.
For you as a learner, the useful point is simple: the double letter is in the same family as the single letter. ㄲ belongs with ㄱ and ㅋ. ㅃ belongs with ㅂ and ㅍ.
Try it with real words
- 달 dal moon ㄷ: the tongue tip touches behind the upper teeth.
- 탈 tal mask ㅌ: same place, but with a strong puff of air.
- 불 bul fire ㅂ: the lips close and open.
- 풀 pul grass ㅍ: the lips again, with a strong puff of air.
- 자다 jada to sleep ㅈ: from the tooth family.
- 차다 chada to be cold; to kick ㅊ: one more stroke, one more puff.
- 강 gang river The final ㅇ is read as 'ng'.
Here is a little secret for remembering: more lines, more air. When you meet a new consonant, look at the lines, and you can already guess something about its sound. Is that not clever?
Why this design matters
Many language experts have praised this design. The letters are not random. They connect the shape on paper to the movement in the mouth, and they connect related sounds by related shapes. This is one reason Hangul is often described as a very scientific writing system.
It also makes learning faster. Instead of memorizing nineteen unrelated consonants, you learn five pictures and one rule. The rest follows naturally.
Check quiz
Q1. What do the five basic consonants show?
Q2. Which letter shows the shape of the mouth?
Q3. Which letter shows the round shape of the throat?
Q4. What does 가획 mean?
가획 gahoekQ5. Which letter is made by adding strokes to ㅅ?
Q6. Which group belongs to the same family?
Excellent! You now see the consonants the way King Sejong saw them. Next time, we will look up at the sky and down at the ground, because that is where the vowels came from. See you soon, my friend.
Key points
- The five basic consonants ㄱ ㄴ ㅁ ㅅ ㅇ are pictures of the speech organs.
- ㄱ = back of the tongue, ㄴ = tongue tip, ㅁ = mouth, ㅅ = tooth, ㅇ = throat.
- Adding a stroke (가획) makes a stronger sound in the same family, e.g. ㄴ → ㄷ → ㅌ.
- Letters that look alike are pronounced in the same part of the mouth.
- ㄹ, ㅿ and ㆁ had special shapes; ㅿ, ㆁ and ㆆ are no longer used.
Recommended official free resources
- National Hangeul Museum — National Hangeul Museum
- Korean Spelling & Standard Pronunciation rules — National Institute of Korean Language
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