How to Easily Memorize the Korean Consonants

Utilizing visual learning technique to instantly recognize the letters

We learned that there are 14 consonants in Hangul or the Korean writing system. Fourteen doesn’t sound like that many, and yet a lot of Korean learners surprisingly struggle with recalling the right sound for each consonant which leads to very slow reading speed. So, let me show you each consonant and teach you how to memorize the letters as easily and effectively as possible!

Instead of looking at the Korean consonants as one big set of letters, we are going to divide them into five different subgroups which we are already aware of:

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5 groups of the Korean Consonants

1. Velars: sounds made around the uvula

   • ㄱ, ㅋ

2. Alveolars: sounds made from just behind the front teeth where there is a ‘bump’

   • ㄴ, ㄷ, ㅌ, ㄹ

3. Bilabials: sounds made around lips

   • ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅍ

4. Dentals: sounds made around teeth

   • ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ

5. Glottals: sound made around vocal cords

   • ㅇ, ㅎ

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You don’t need to pay attention to the names of each group, but it’s definitely worth noting where the sounds of the letters come from. The first consonant in each group is written in boldface meaning they are the primary letter of the set. What is really interesting is that the remaining consonants in each group are just variations of the primary letter. It makes sense for  the design of the letters to be similar if they produce similar sounds, doesn’t it?

Now, I’m going to show you each consonant in the order of the groups listed above and how you can easily memorize them and be able to recall the sound of each letter as instantly as possible. We are going to implement the visual learning technique where ideas are communicated through images. I made a series of designs that illustrates each of the 14 consonants and how you can associate each letter with a corresponding image. Let’s get started!

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Group 1: ㄱ, ㅋ

Here we have the first group! We have 2 consonants and as we can see, they look very similar because they sound very similar to each other. So, how can we easily memorize these letters?

1. ㄱ: Well, the first letter looks like a ‘Gun’, so we are going to call it the Korean G. It makes sense, right?

2. ㅋ: And for the next consonant, we see a little stroke inside the letter which is the trigger of the gun, and what happens if you pull the trigger? You are going to ‘Kill’ someone. So, we are going to call it the Korean K!

This is what I mean by utilizing the visual learning technique where we can link a consonant to an image with a similar shape. And we are going to continue looking at other consonants in the same manner.

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Group 2: ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅌ

Here is the second group! It is a group of 4 consonants that consists of the letter in bold which is the primary letter and three variations.

1. ㄴ: If you look at the primary consonant, it resembles the shape of a ‘Nose’, so we are going to call it the Korean N!

2. ㄷ: Now, let’s have a look at the first variation of the three. It looks like a ‘Door’, so we are going to call it the Korean D.

3. ㅌ: And the next one just has an extra stroke inside the the Korean D which makes it look like a ‘Trident’, so we are going to call it the Korean T.

4. ㄹ: The last variation is an interesting consonant, my personal favorite! It’s a special letter, because it makes two different sounds depending on where it’s placed in a syllable block. (We haven’t learned about the syllable block yet, so don’t worry about it as we’ll talk about it in a later lesson.) If we take a look at the shape of this letter, it looks like a ‘Rattlesnake’, so we are going to call it the Korean R. However, this Korean R doesn’t really sound like the English R—instead, it sounds more like the Spanish R without the dramatic rolling sound! 

   
   But—as I already mentioned, this letter makes two different sounds. To help us remember that second sound, we’re going to picture a different shape that it resembles which is a ‘Ladder’. So, we are also going to call it the Korean L. Then you might want to ask me, “When is this consonant an R and when is it an L?”. I’m going to talk about this when we learn how to read Korean, so for now, just keep in mind that it can be both an R and an L!

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Group 3: ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅍ

Here is the third group! It is a group of 3 consonants that consists of a primary letter and two variations.

1. ㅁ: Looking at the primary consonant, it has a shape of a square or a rectangle which resembles  ‘Mail’. So, we are going to call it the Korean M.

2. ㅂ: This consonant has two little strokes going up on the top corners of the Korean M consonant. And it looks like a ‘Bed’. So, we are going to call it the Korean B.

3. ㅍ: The last variation has four little strokes going sideways at every corner of the Korean M, and it resembles the shape of the ‘Pi’ symbol. So, we are going to call it the Korean P!

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Group 4: ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ

Here is the fourth group! It is another group of 3 consonants that consists of a primary letter and two variations. For this group, we are going to link the letters with the shapes of a person with different postures!

1. ㅅ: This primary consonant resembles the shape of someone’s legs when the person is ‘Standing’. So, we are going to call it the Korean S.

2. ㅈ: This variation has a horizontal stroke cover the top of the Korean S and it looks like someone’s arms spread out when the person is ‘Jogging’. So, we are going to call it the Korean J.

3. ㅊ: And the last variation has a little stroke going up on top of the Korean J. And we can imagine that tiny stroke we just added on top is someone’s sweat droplet, because the person is ‘Chasing’ someone. So, we are going to call it the Korean Ch!

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Group 5: ㅇ, ㅎ

Here is the fifth group! It is a group of 2 consonants that consists of a primary letter and one variation.

1. ㅇ: This primary consonant, named ‘Placeholder’, is another special letter just like the Korean R/L letter. It also makes two different sounds depending on where it is placed in a syllable block. What does the letter look like? Well, it’s just a circle with a hole inside, it’s empty! So when this letter is the first consonant in a syllable block, it signifies, no sound. So why do you even need a letter that has no sound? It’s a great question that I’ll be covering entirely in the lesson called ‘Placeholder’. The other sound this consonant makes is an ‘ng’ sound. Let’s just keep in mind that this placeholder can either be silent or make an ‘ng’ sound!

2. ㅎ: Finally, this variation has strokes on top of the placeholder consonant which resembles someone with a ‘Hat’! So, we are going to call it the Korean H.

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And we’ve looked at all 14 consonants just like that! From now on, whenever you see a Korean consonant, you should be able to recall the image which will help you memorize the letter easier and faster. Let me ask you one question. What is your favorite Korean consonant?

I hope you found this helpful and I’ll send you another one soon😉

다음에 또 봐!💙