가
자음 + 세로 모음
Consonant + vertical vowel
The vowel stands beside the consonant.
글자 조합Korean Syllable Blocks — How Hangul Letters Stack
Korean is not written as a line of letters. Each syllable is drawn inside its own square block — ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ becomes 한 — and that is the one part of Hangul that genuinely confuses people, because nothing in the Latin alphabet works this way.
It takes ten minutes. There are three slots, filled in a fixed order, and six possible shapes decided entirely by the vowel.
- 가능한 글자Possible blocks
- 11,172
- 실제 쓰임Actually used here
- 1,226
- 구성Letters per block
- 2–4
규칙The whole rule
Three slots, filled in a fixed order, drawn in a square.
- An initial consonant — always. If the syllable begins with a vowel sound, ㅇ fills the slot and says nothing.
- A vowel — always. This is the letter that decides the block's shape.
- A final consonant — optional. Called a 받침, it always goes underneath.
Read a block the way you read a page: left to right, then top to bottom. 한 is ㅎ, then ㅏ, then ㄴ.
여섯 가지 모양The six shapes
Which one you get is decided entirely by the vowel. Nothing else changes.
고
자음 + 가로 모음
Consonant + horizontal vowel
The vowel lies under the consonant.
과
자음 + 복합 모음
Consonant + compound vowel
A compound vowel wraps both ways at once.
각
자음 + 세로 모음 + 받침
…with a 받침
The final consonant goes underneath the pair.
곡
자음 + 가로 모음 + 받침
…with a 받침
Three levels, top to bottom.
광
자음 + 복합 모음 + 받침
…with a 받침
The fullest block Hangul builds.
모음이 결정한다The vowel decides the layout
Two groups, and you can tell them apart by looking at the letter.
Vertical vowels → consonant on the left
ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅣ ㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ
Their long stroke stands up, so there is room beside it and none above it. ㄱ + ㅏ = 가
Horizontal vowels → consonant on top
ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ
Their long stroke lies flat, so there is room above it and none beside it. ㄱ + ㅗ = 고
The compound vowels built from both — ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅢ — wrap around two sides at once, which is why 과 looks crowded. It is still exactly three letters.
가장 흔한 글자The blocks you will meet first
Counted across all 14,988 headwords in the dictionary — the commonest syllables in the language, not a textbook's guess.
다da3,915
하ha1,769
이i558
지ji555
기gi535
리ri492
사sa423
자ja382
적jeok377
가ga352
대dae348
수su342
다 tops the list because every verb and adjective in the dictionary ends in it — that is the dictionary form. 하 is second because 하다 makes verbs out of nouns, and thousands of entries end that way. Conjugation ›
자주 묻는 질문Common questions
How do Korean syllable blocks work?
Every block is one syllable and holds two or three letters: an initial consonant, a vowel, and optionally a final consonant. They are read in that order — left to right, then top to bottom. 한 is ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ, not a character with its own meaning.
Why does a syllable start with ㅇ if it is silent?
Because a block must have an initial consonant slot filled, and ㅇ is what fills it when the syllable really begins with a vowel. 이 is “i”, not “ngi”. The same letter at the bottom of a block is a real sound, ng — so in 앙, the top circle is silent and the bottom one is not.
How many Korean syllable blocks are there?
11,172 are possible — 19 initials × 21 vowels × 28 final slots — and Unicode encodes every one. Far fewer occur: only 1,226 distinct blocks appear anywhere in the 14,988 headwords on this site, and the commonest fifty cover most of what a beginner reads.
Does the shape of a block change how it is pronounced?
No. The layout is decided purely by the vowel — a vertical vowel puts the consonant beside it, a horizontal vowel puts it above — and carries no sound information. 고 and 가 are laid out differently and pronounced with the same consonant.
Why do the letters look squashed inside a block?
Because every block occupies the same square, whether it holds two letters or four. The letters shrink and shift to fill it, which is why ㅁ looks wide in 마 and narrow in 뫙. It is the same letter — a font problem, not a reading problem.